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HOME  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
OF  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE 

No.  22 

Editors  : 

HERBERT    FISHER,  M  A.,  F.B.A. 
Prof.   GILBERT  MURRAY,  Litt.D., 

LL.D.,   F.B.A. 
Prof.  J.  ARTHUR    THOMSON,  M.A. 
PKOF.  WILLIAM  T.  BREWSTER,  M.A. 


THE   HOME    UNIVERSITY   LIBRARY 
OF   MODERN   KNOWLEDGE 

VOLUMES  NOW  READY 

HISTORY  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE     .    G.  H.  Perris 

POLAR   EXPLORATION' Dr.W.S.Bruce,LL.D.,F.R.S.E. 

THE   FRENCH  REVOLUTION   .     .     .     Hilaieb  Belloc,  M.A. 

THE    STOCK   EXCHANGE;  A  Shost 
Study  of  Investment  and  Speculation    F.  W.  Hirst 

IRISH   NATIONALITY Alice  Stopford  Green 

THE   SOCIALIST    MOVEMENT  ...     J.  Ramsay  MacDonald,  M.P. 

PARLIAMENT  :  Its  History,  Constitu- 
tion, and  Practice Sir  Courtenay  Ilbeet,  K.C.B., 

K.C.S.I. 

MODERN  GEOGRAPHY Marion  I.  Newbigin,  D.  Sc, 

WILLIAM   SHAKESPEARE     ....     John  Masefield. 

THE    EVOLUTION   OF   PLANTS     .     .     D.  H.  Scott,M.A.,LL.D.,F.R.S. 

THE  OPENING-UP  OF  AFRICA    .    .    Sir  H.  H.  Johnston,  G.C.M.G. 

K.C.B.,  D.Sc,  F.Z.S. 

MEDIEVAL   EUROPE H.  W.  C.  Davis,  M.A. 

THE   SCIENCE    OF   WEALTH     .     .     .     J.  A.  Hobson,  M.A. 

INTRODUCTION   TO  MATHEMATICS    A.  N.  Whitehead,  Sc.D.  F.R.S. 

THE   ANIMAL  WORLD F.  W  Gamble,  D.Sc,  F.R.S. 

EVOLUTION J.  Arthur  Thomson,  M.A.,  and 

Patrick  Gedde3,  M.A. 

LIBERALISM L.  T.  Hoehouse,  M.A. 

CRIME   AND   INSANITY Dr.  C.  A.   Mercier,  F.R.C.P., 

F.R.C.S. 

THE    CIVIL  WAR Frehep.ic  L.  Passon,  Ph.D. 

THE   CIVILIZATION   OF   CHINA    .     .     H.   A.  Giles,  M.A.,  LL.D. 

HISTORY   OF   OUR   TIME,   1885-1911  .     G.  F.  Gooch,  M.A. 

ENGLISH   LITERATURE  :    MODERN  .     George  Mair.  M.A. 

PSYCHICAL   RESEARCH W.  F.  Barrett,  F.R.S. 


THE    DAWN   OF   HISTORY      . 
ELEMENTS   OF   ENGLISH   LAV- 
ASTRONOMY  

INTRODUCTION   TO   SfTKNCE 

THE   PAPACY  AND   MODERN   TIMES     Rev.  Dr.  William  Barry 

THE  EVOLUTION   OF   INDUSTRY      .     I).  H.  Macgeegor,  M.A. 


J    L.  Myres,  M.A.,  F.S.A. 
W.  M.  Geldart,  M.A.,  B.C.L. 
A.  R.  Hikes,  M.A. 
.T.  Arthur  Thomson 


Other  voluu.es  iu  active  preparation.     List  oil  request 


THE    PAPACY 

AND    MODERN    TIMES 

A  POLITICAL  SKETCH,  1303-1870 

BY 

WILLIAM  BARRY,  D.D. 

SOMETIME     SCHOLAR     OF     THE     ENGLISH     COLLEGE,     ROME 

AUTHOR     OF     "THE      PAPAL     MONARCHY";      AND 

A    CONTRIBUTOR    TO    THE    "  CAMBRIDGE 

MODERN    HISTORY  " 


Hinc  septem  dominos  videre  montes, 
Et  totam  licet  aestimare  Romam. 

Martial. 

See  from  his  height  the  seven  lordly  hills, 
And  measure  hence  the  total  worth  of  Rome 


NEW   YORK 
HENRY    HOLT    AND    COMPANY 

LONDON 
WILLIAMS    AND    NORGATE 


Copyright,  1911, 

BY 
HENRY    HOLT    AND    COMPANY 


THK    UNIVERSITY    PRESS,    CAMBRIDGE.     U.S.A. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface     .     .    , vii 

Prologue,  The  Vatican  and  the  Roman  Father  1  1 
chap. 

I    From  Avignon  to  Constance 33 

II   From  Constance  to  the  Sack  of  Rome     ...  64 

III  From   the    Sack   of   Rome   to  the   Beginnings 

of  the  Thirty  Years' War 99 

IV  From  the  Escorial  to  Versailles 133 

V   From  Louis  XIV  to  the  Revolution    ....  162 

VI    From  the  Revolution  to  Waterloo      ....  187 

VII    From  Waterloo  to  the  Fall  of  Rome    .     .    .  211 

Bibliography 253 

Index      .     .    , 255 


PREFACE 

These  pages  do  not  undertake  to  frame  or  to 
resolve  religious  problems  ;  they  are  not  a  treatise  in 
Canon  Law  ;  neither  will  they  attempt  Church  history 
in  any  proper  sense  of  the  word.  I  have  called  my 
little  book  a  "  political  sketch/'  and  in  that  light, 
with  all  due  courtesy,  it  is  offered  to  the  Home 
University  collection.  Its  purpose  may  be  stated 
in  a  sentence.  I  desire  to  explain  how  it  is  that 
the  Twentieth  of  September,  1870,  when  I  saw  the 
Italian  army  enter  Rome,  forms  a  landmark  in  the 
story  of  Western  Europe  and,  by  consequence,  in 
the  development  of  modern  society  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic.  For,  if  the  scene  is  Rome,  the  horizon 
is  America.  There  are  three  terms  of  comparison 
involved  —  the  Papacy,  the  Absolute  State,  and  the 
American  Constitution,  which  last,  derived  from 
England,  owes  its  principles  to  the  Great  Charter 
and  to  Edward  the  Confessor.  Putting  these  high 
abstract  forms  into  the  concrete,  we  may  behold  on 
our  stage,  Washington,  Napoleon,  and  Hildebrand- 
Of  these,  Washington  needs  no  description;  he 
shines  by  his  own  splendour  in  the  sky  of  liberty , 
sua  se  luce  signal.  Hildebrand,  the  least  known  to 
men  at  this  hour,  is  by  no  means  the  least  important. 


viii  PREFACE 

He  stands  outside  my  limits,  but  in  theory  and  ideal 
he  pervades  the  whole  narrative,  from  Boniface  VIII. 
to  Pius  IX.  As  for  Napoleon,  he  is  Caesar  come  to 
life  again,  inheriting  from  the  Roman  Empire,  from 
Philip  the  Fair,  and  Louis  XIV".,  his  conception  of 
untrammelled  power,  and  from  many  an  Italian 
tyrant  his  ambition  to  found  a  Kingdom  of  Italy. 
Napoleon  first  abolished  the  Temporal  Power  in 
principle  and  in  fact;  he  is  the  true  author  of  the 
Venti  Settembre. 

But  its  causes  go  very  far  back ;  it  was  already 
preordained  as  a  fatal  term  to  this  unique  dominion 
from  the  day  of  Anagni,  September  7,  1303,  when 
Colonna,  the  Roman  Prince,  and  Nogaret,  the  French 
lawyer,  outraged  Pope  Boniface  on  his  throne  — 
"that  throne,"  says  Lecky,  "which  was  once  the 
center  and  the  archetype  of  the  political  system  of 
Europe,  the  successor  of  Imperial  Rome."  Now  the 
Pope  sits  like  a  prisoner  in  his  Vatican  over  against 
the  Italian  king,  who,  from  within  the  usurped 
chambers  of  the  Quirinal,  governs  on  the  lines  of 
Napoleon's  famous  Code  (though  with  some  figure 
of  a  Parliament),  his  modern  revolutionary  State. 
The  situation  has  lasted  forty  years.  It  is  unique, 
dramatic,  pregnant  of  consequences.  To  sum  up, 
the  Papacy  was  for  hundreds  of  years  suzerain  over 
kings,  and  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  was  its  armed 
defender.  It  is  now  the  head  of  a  world-wide 
voluntary  association  which  wields  no  sword  but  its 
faith,  and  which  owes  nothing  to  secular  govern- 
ments.     How  so  remarkable  a  transformation  came 


PREFACE  ix 

to  pass,  and  what  it  means  politically,  is  the  subject 
I  have  taken  in  hand.  It  is  a  chapter  in  the  history 
of  spiritual  freedom.  So  long  as  the  Vatican  endures, 
Csesarism  will  not  have  won  the  day. 

I  speak,  of  course,  always  under  correction,  with 
a  deep  sense  of  my  own  inadequacy  in  grappling 
with  matters  so  difficult  and  so  controverted  ;  nor 
am  I  able,  as  I  should  like,  to  express  my  gratitude 
to  the  writers,  past  and  present,  by  whose  light  I 
travel.    Let  me  beg  the  reader's  indulgent  sympathy. 

William  Barry. 

Leamington, 

In  Festo  S.  Petri  ad  Vincula, 
August  1,  1911. 


THE  PAPACY 
AND  MODERN  TIMES 

PROLOGUE 

THE   VATICAN   AND    THE   ROMAN   FATHER 
(AEXEID,    IX.,    449) 

Two  thousand  years  ago,  in  round  numbers, 
the  Italian  city  called  Rome  had  brought 
under  its  sway  all  those  peoples,  civilized  or 
barbarian,  who  dwelt  between  the  Euphrates 
and  the  Atlantic,  south  of  Rhine  and  Danube, 
and  north  of  the  African  deserts.  This  great 
confederation  was  known  as  the  Roman 
Empire.  Its  ruler  held  at  once  the  supreme 
civil  power  and  the  control  of  religion.  He 
bore  as  a  title  in  the  secular  State  the  name 
of  Caesar;  as  chief  priest  that  of  Pontifex 
Maximus.  So  had  events  determined  after 
the  battle  of  Actium  (31  B.C.),  when  the  old 
Republic  was  changed  into  an  absolute 
monarchy  (though  disguised  by  keeping  the 
popular  designations),  the  head  of  which  was 
Augustus,  grand-nephew  of  that  Julius  whom 
Shakespeare  extols  as  "the  foremost  man  of 
11 


12      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

all  this  world."  Imperial  Rome,  likewise, 
though  in  a  somewhat  hard,  military  fashion, 
took  to  itself  the  culture  of  Hellas,  which  it 
has  taught  Europeans  to  miscall  Greece. 
It  had  long  struggled  against  foreign  religious 
rites,  and  often  put  them  down  by  law; 
especially  the  frenzied  cults  of  Bacchus  and 
Isis.  But  when  the  native  Italian  blood  had 
been  recklessly  spilt  in  civil  wars,  and  Rome 
grew  Orientalized  by  its  multitudes  of  slaves 
and  parasites  from  Eastern  lands,  such 
secret,  fantastic,  and  professedly  wonder- 
working forms  of  worship  gained  an  immense 
influence.  They  brought  to  the  capital  of 
civilization  an  idea  as  of  something  universal, 
which  corresponded  with  its  own  dignity  and 
its  office  towards  mankind.  There  was 
conceivable  a  deep  interpenetration  of  the 
outward  Roman  framework  of  society  by  a 
spiritual  force.  But  these  old  heathen 
superstitions  were  not  destined  to  achieve 
so  noble  an  enterprise.  For  Israel  had 
already  learnt  from  its  prophets  the  true 
Religion  of  Humanity.  Judaism  was  enlarged 
in  thought  and  outlook  until  it  became  the 
Catholic  Church.  The  first  Rome  had  been 
established  on  the  Palatine  Hill.  A  second 
now    sprang    into    being    on    the    Vatican. 


PROLOGUE— THE   VATICAN        13 

Jew  conquered  Roman  as  Roman  had  con- 
quered East  and  West.  We  may  fix  the  date 
and  symbolize  the  consequences  of  this 
greater  triumph  in  a  description  left  us  by 
Tacitus,  the  most  philosophical  among  Latin 
historians,  of  Nero's  dealings  with  a  certain 
folk,  "hated  for  their  general  wickedness, 
whom  the  vulgar  called  Christians"  (Annals, 
xv.,  44). 

Outside  the  city  walls,  and  across  the 
Tiber  to  the  north-west,  rises,  not  quite 
one  hundred  feet  above  the  Mediterranean 
level,  Mons  Vaticanus,  the  Hill  of  Prophecy. 
It  had  its  name  perhaps  from  an  Etruscan 
oracle.  Its  gardens  belonged  to  Agrippina, 
Nero's  mother,  and  thus  came  to  him;  on 
their  site  Caligula  and  Claudius  had  built  a 
circus  for  chariot-racing  which  Nero  haunted. 
The  goal  was  an  obelisk  from  Heliopolis, 
standing  nearly  where  the  high  altar  of  St. 
Peter's  now  stands.  And  the  obelisk  adorns 
the  centre  of  the  great  square,  with  this 
writing  upon  it,  "Christ  conquers,  Christ 
reigns,  Christ  commands ;  Christ  defend 
His  people  from  all  harm."  The  words  sum 
up  a  revolution  and  a  history.  They  bring 
back  that  First  of  August,  04  (the  year  of 
Rome,    817),    when    the    Vatican    gardens 


14      PAPACY  AND   MODERN   TIMES 

blazed  with  living  victims,  whose  alleged 
crime  it  was  that  they  had  set  the  city  on 
fire.  They  are  associated  with  the  martyrdom 
of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  whom  the  Roman 
Church  reveres  as  its  founders.  They  imply, 
as  St.  John  docs  in  the  Apocalypse,  that  the 
persecuting  Emperor  was  Antichrist.  In  their 
triumphant  tone  we  listen  to  the  battle-cry 
of  centuries,  during  which  Catholicism  fought 
its  way  to  victory.  The  Palatine  is  a  heap 
of  ruins;  St.  Peter's  Confession  draws  pil- 
grims from  the  ends  of  the  earth.  And  so 
the  Vatican  dominates  those  "seven  lordly 
hills"  which  Martial  celebrates  on  our  title- 
page. 

All  things  that  seemed  fatal  to  this  new 
birth  of  time  favoured  it.  "The  blood 
of  martyrs,"  said  Tertullian,  "became  the 
seed  of  the  Church."  Vespasian  and  Titus 
made  Rome  the  centre  of  Christian  hopes 
when  they  destroyed  Jerusalem.  When,  after 
Scverus,  the  West  fell  into  anarchy;  when 
riches,  peace,  and  learning  were  more  and 
more  the  heritage  of  countries  lying  east 
of  the  Adriatic,  St.  Peter's  successor  was 
gathering  strength.  St.  Cyprian  of  Carthage 
venerated  the  Apostolic  Chair;  we  hear 
already  the  term  Pontifex  Maximus  applied 


PROLOGUE— THE  VATICAN  15 

to  the  Pope.  Constantine  erected  a  temple 
on  the  spot  where  St.  Peter  was  crucified. 
He  paved  the  way  for  a  division  of  the  Empire 
by  founding  his  new  capital  on  the  Bosporus 
over  against  Asia;  thus  abandoning  Rome, 
Italy,  Spain,  Gaul,  Germany,  to  this  un- 
daunted power.  The  Popes  were  statesmen; 
they  refused  to  be  mere  metaphysicians;  and 
their  calm  adherence  to  tradition  gave  them 
the  casting-vote  when  Antioch  quarrelled 
with  Alexandria,  when  Constantinople  was 
torn  by  religious  factions,  when  orthodox 
and  heterodox  alike  appealed  to  Julius, 
Celestine,  Leo — names  of  majesty,  not  soiled 
by  disputes  or  degraded  in  the  strife  of 
councils.  The  calamities  which  overtook  this 
degenerate  civilization  left  the  Vatican  sacred 
and  secure.  Leo,  deservedly  known  as  the 
Great  (440-461),  stopped  the  march  of 
Attila.  The  Vandals  ruined  Carthage;  but,  in 
deference  to  the  same  eloquent  Pontiff,  they 
spared  the  Roman  shrines.  Islam  afforded 
to  the  Popes  during  nearly  eleven  hundred 
years  a  definite  and  urgent  plea  for  exercis- 
ing in  defence  of  Christendom  almost  a  dic- 
tator's office.  Mohammedan  fury  laid  waste 
Egypt,  Africa,  Syria;  it  humbled  the  proud 
Byzantine  Emperor;  it  subdued  Spain,  and 


16      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

invaded  France.  As  the  eighth  Christian 
century  ended  it  was  manifest  that  none  but 
the  Roman  Father  could  bestow  on  Europe, 
from  Illyria  to  Ireland,  a  humane  religion  or 
the  elements  of  civilized  life. 

Two  names  cast  a  gleam  upon  the  darkness 
which  followed  the  inroads  of  Barbarians 
and  Islamites— St.  Benedict,  who  appears 
as  a  lawgiver,  shaping  monastic  rules  into 
principles  by  which  order  was  brought  out 
of  chaos;  and  St.  Gregory,  who  laid  in  desolate 
Rome  the  great  bases  of  a  future  Christian 
commonwealth.  To  them  we  owe  it  that 
the  sovereign  city  was  "victorious  in  her 
mourning  weeds."  Benedict,  in  the  cloister, 
began  to  create  an  order  of  peace  and  indus- 
try, making  labour  a  divine  service.  Gregory 
fed  the  multitude,  resisted  the  yet  half-savage 
Lombards,  sent  missionaries  to  Britain,  and 
saw  the  Barbarians  turning  from  Arianism 
to  the  Catholic  faith.  He  claimed  a  suzer- 
ainty over  the  Spanish  Kings;  he  became 
a  friend  of  that  nation  born  to  illustrious 
fortunes,  the  Franks.  Another  Gregory,  in 
the  quarrel  with  Leo,  breaker  of  sacred 
images,  did  all  he  could  to  preserve  Italy 
for  its  Byzantine  masters  while  resisting 
their  fanaticism   (7L2G-?31).     He  failed;  the 


PROLOGUE— THE   VATICAN  17 

Romans  acclaimed  him  deliverer,  and  gave 
to  St.  Peter  the  Eternal  City.  Thus  began 
what  is  now  known  as  the  Temporal  Power 
of  the  Popes.  "Their  noblest  title,"  says 
Gibbon  as  he  relates  this  memorable  trans- 
action, "is  the  free  choice  of  a  people  whom 
they  had  redeemed  from  slavery." 

But  observe  their  condition  henceforth. 
Supreme  guardians  of  religion  over  the  whole 
"West,  they  are  viewed  at  Constantinople 
as  rebels.  They  must  keep  a  hand  on  the 
"Roman  People,"  proud  and  turbulent, 
hating  strangers,  though  supported  by 
contributions  from  foreign  pilgrims  ad  limina 
— at  the  Apostle's  threshold — and  ready  to 
break  out  on  every  pretext.  Between  the 
Lateran  "clergy"  and  the  "army"  of  the 
Palatine  friction  is  unceasing.  To  the  north, 
pressing  continually  down  from  their  Alps, 
we  see  a  fierce  ambitious  tribe  of  Lombards, 
who  covet  the  wealth  and  splendour  of  the 
golden  city.  South  of  the  Papal  territories 
and  behind  them  lies  the  Sicilian  world, 
menaced  by  Greeks  and  Saracens,  open  later 
on  to  a  famous  Xorman  Conquest.  Here 
is  the  key  of  the  situation.  Whoever  holds 
at  one  time  Milan  or  Pavia  together  with 
Naples,   can  take  the  Vatican  as  in  a  net. 


18      PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

This  combination  no  Pope  would  ever  will- 
ingly allow.  To  be  the  subject  of  a  Western 
prince  would  dishonour  the  Supreme  Pontiff; 
but  if  he  is  to  enjoy  freedom,  then  a  balance 
of  power  in  Italy  and  a  distant  protector, 
whom  he  can  call  in  and  send  home  again, 
will  alone  secure  it.  When  the  Lombards 
threaten,  he  appeals  to  the  Frankish  dynasty 
■ — to  Pepin,  whom  Zachary,  in  752,  crowned 
King  by  the  hands  of  St.  Boniface.  Pepin 
crosses  the  Alps,  defeats  Astolf,  gives  his 
spoils  to  the  Holy  See.  That  is  Pepin's 
donation  (756).  Fresh  troubles  bring  his 
son,  Charles  the  Great,  to  Rome  in  774. 
Pope  Hadrian  declares  him  Patrician,  and 
obtains  for  the  Roman  Duchy  those  limits 
which  it  preserved  almost  down  to  1870. 
To  the  south  all  that  Byzantium  lost  the 
Papacy  won.  Hadrian  assumed  regal  state. 
Bui  it  was  Leo  III.,  who  by  a  bold  and  happy 
stroke  created  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  on 
Christmas  Day,  800.  Meekly  prostrate  be- 
fore him  in  St.  Peter's,  Charles  received  the 
crown,  and  was  hailed  Augustus  by  a  re- 
joicing people. 

This  magnificent  sight  was  often  to  be 
renewed  during  six  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
but    seldom    without    bloodshed.       To    our 


PROLOGUE— THE  VATICAN  19 

ancestors,  the  wild  men  who  occupied  Europe 
by  right  of  their  swords,  the  Pax  Romana 
was  a  term  void  of  understanding.  Feudalism 
supposed  and  perpetuated  the  state  of  war; 
peace  could  be  only  a  "Truce  of  God," 
a  Sabbath  interval.  When  Henry  III.,  as 
Emperor,  extended  it  to  half  the  year,  his 
nobles  loudly  protested.  Not  until  Amalfi, 
Venice,  Genoa  began  to  flourish,  was  an 
industrial  pacific  order  of  things  conceivable. 
We  must  imagine  the  "war  of  all  against 
all"  as  never  wholly  ceasing,  until  its  ferocity 
was  lifted  to  enthusiasm  by  crusading  ardour, 
and  expeditions  to  Palestine  allowed  the 
peasant,  the  farmer,  the  merchant  of  the  West 
a  chance  to  develop  their  resources  in  their 
own  way.  Mediaeval  Europe  was  a  camp 
with  a  church  in  the  background. 

Rome,  in  particular,  had  neither  industry 
nor  commerce.  Its  brigand-chiefs,  Frangi- 
pani,  Orsini,  Colonna,  entrenched  themselves 
in  the  mighty  ruins,  built  hundreds  of  towers 
from  their  brick  or  marble,  and  sallied  forth 
morning  after  morning  bent  on  revenge  or 
robbery.  The  Church  became,  in  spite  of 
laws  and  saints,  a  feudal  preserve.  Its 
wealth  went  on  growing,  until  it  held  from 
one-third  to  one-half  of  all  the  land  in  Europe. 


20      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Its  bishops  were  princes,  its  abbots  great 
lords.  And  the  protection  of  sanctuary,  the 
power  of  mortmain,  were  defended  by  "ex- 
communication" which  cut  off  assailants 
from  holy  things,  or  by  "interdict,"  which 
deprived  a  whole  country  of  religious 
observances.  These  were  strong  but  often 
necessary  measures.  Yet  the  kings  and 
nobles  who  had  enriched  the  Church  took 
away  with  one  hand  what  they  gave  with 
the  other.  They  made  of  their  children, 
legitimate  or  illegitimate,  "spiritual  persons" 
enjoying  the  privileges  of  clerics;  thrust 
them  into  well-endowed  sees;  and  created 
the  enormous  scandal  of  boy-bishops  and 
even  boy-Popes.  A  mailclad  hierarchy  turned 
the  crozier  into  a  sword.  Meanwhile,  Charle- 
magne's descendants  broke  up  and  lost 
his  wide  Empire.  The  Papacy  fell  into 
unspeakable  degradation.  It  was  exploited 
during  eighty-two  years  by  the  House  of 
Theophylact  (8SL2-9G4).  There  comes  a  ray 
of  troubled  sunshine  when  the  German 
Otho  I.  appears  as  a  "tenth-century  Charle- 
magne." At  the  sad  millennium  after  Christ 
we  admire  and  pity  the  swiftly-passing, 
gracious  figures  of  Otho  III.  and  Silvester  II. 
Otho  was  made  to  be  the  soldier  of  the  Cross, 


PROLOGUE— THE  VATICAN  21 

and  Silvester  was  the  first  French  Pope,  a 
man  of  letters  who  meets  Arabian  science  on 
its  own  ground,  while  he  projects  though  he 
cannot  execute  the  first  Crusade. 

Christendom,  in  spite  of  the  Iron  Age, 
was  forming  little  by  little.  The  Vatican 
blessed  or  sent  forth  missionaries  to  the 
heathen,  Patrick,  Augustine,  Columban, 
Boniface,  Cyril,  Adalbert.  Cloisters  grew 
into  cities.  Teutonic  and  other  knights 
compelled  the  pagan  nations  to  come  in. 
Stephen  of  Hungary  converted  his  people, 
took  his  crown  from  the  hands  of  St.  Peter, 
and  was  Papal  Legate  in  his  own  dominions. 
St.  Olaf  rudely  constrained  the  Norsemen  to 
receive  baptism,  and  as  much  as  could  be 
given  them  of  southern  culture.  Their  sea- 
faring cousins  settled  in  France  as  Normans; 
sailed  round  to  Sicily;  captured  Pope  Leo  IX. 
at  Civitella  in  1053;  obtained  his  pardon 
with  the  investiture  of  Naples;  and  under 
a  certain  William  well  known  to  us  conquered 
at  Hastings  in  106G.  The  lineaments  of 
modern  Europe  begin  to  appear.  At  this 
turning-point  the  Papal  succession  was  re- 
formed. Benedictine  monks,  trained  under 
the  influence  of  French  Cluny,  ascended  St. 
Peter's  Chair.     Hildebrand,  a  Catholic  and 


22      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

monastic  Julius  Csesar,  governed  the  Church 
as  archdeacon  or  pope  for  thirty-seven 
years  (1048-1085).  lie  may  be  said  to 
have  given  to  mediaeval  Europe  its  definite 
form. 

The  Church  and  the  Empire — an  ecclesi- 
astical order  with  its  own  courts,  jurisdiction, 
properties,  immunities,  facing  a  secular  order 
with  its  tenures,  claims,  ambitions;  and  above 
each  its  crowned  representative  supreme 
- — such  is  the  shape  into  which  Christian 
society  falls  during  the  Middle  Ages.  Every 
king  except  the  King  of  France  had,  at  one 
season  or  another,  become  liegeman  to  the 
Pope,  or,  at  any  rate,  wielded  his  sceptre 
by  approval  at  Rome.  Even  William  the 
Conqueror  accepted  from  Alexander  II.  a 
consecrated  banner  on  his  expedition;  though 
England  did  not  become  a  fief  of  the  Holy 
See  until  Henry  II-,  and  most  explicitly 
King  John,  put  it  into  sanctuary  as  a  defence 
against  their  subjects.  But  now,  under 
Hildebrand,  when  he  was  made  Gregory  VII., 
and  when  Henry  IV.  was  the  German  Caesar, 
an  opposition  broke  out  which  had  long  been 
threatening,  and  which  these  two  men,  so 
strangely  unlike,  brought  to  a  crisis.  Investi- 
ture, the  mystic  ceremony  by  which  prelates 


PROLOGUE— THE   VATICAN  23 

took  possession  of  their  dignities  and  emolu- 
ments, was  claimed  as  a  right  on  both  sides. 
This  confusion  of  powers  seemed  likely  to 
reduce  the  Papacy  itself  to  an  imperial 
"fief,"  or  the  Empire  to  a  Papal  "benefice." 
Rome,  in  its  distress,  could  always  refuse 
acknowledgment  by  any  and  every  cleric  of 
secular  authority,  thus  setting  up  a  kingdom 
apart,  though  scattered,  throughout  the  West. 
Caesar  learned  to  reply  with  anti-popes  and 
intruded  prelates;  he  could  lay  violent  hands 
upon  Church  property,  exile  its  lawful  holders, 
and  scorn  interdicts.  These  things  all  came 
to  pass.  But  Henry  IV.  was  no  match  for 
Gregory  VII.,  and  the  Emperor's  three  days' 
penance  in  the  snow  at  Canossa  (January, 
1076)  alone  saved  him  from  deposition  by  the 
Roman  Pontiff.  Canossa  meant  victory  for 
the  cleric  over  the  layman,  and  the  layman 
never  forgot  it. 

Hildebrand's  "imperial  mind,"  as  Newman 
called  it,  had  seen  and  brought  out  the  com- 
plete idea  of  the  Papacy.  By  insisting  on  a 
celibate  priesthood,  by  strict  alliance  with 
monasticism,  by  use  of  the  deposing  power, 
by  Roman  Councils,  and  by  taking  up  once 
more  the  design  of  a  crusade  against  Islam, 
lie    intended    to    establish    beyond    peril    of 


24      PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

defeat  a  theocracy  according  to  the  New 
Testament.  This  was  to  be  the  reign  of  the 
Saints.  It  did  not  find  its  charter,  Gregory 
would  have  said,  in  Constantine's  alleged 
donation  or  in  the  "False  Decretals"  pre- 
sented to  Pope  Nicholas  I.  On  the  contrary, 
its  rights  were  all  summed  up  in  St.  Leo's 
pregnant  language  as  "Petri  privilegium," 
St.  Peter's  Gospel-right.  The  Holy  See 
judged  all  and  was  judged  of  none.  The 
sword  of  the  flesh  must  obey  the  sword  of 
the  spirit.  Although  Csesar  might  claim  the 
things  which  were  Caesar's,  for  him  to  meddle 
with  the  things  that  were  God's  was  sacrilege. 
The  Pope  taught  the  creed,  gave  or  withheld 
crowns  on  appeal,  acted  as  commander-in- 
chief  of  Christendom,  and  raised  a  steadily- 
increasing  revenue  on  behalf  of  the  Holy 
War.  Gregory's  French  successor,  Urban  II., 
opened  at  Clermont  in  1095  the  era  of 
expeditions  to  Palestine,  which  preserved 
Europe  from  becoming  a  Mohammedan  prov- 
ince, and  brought  back  dangerous  but 
fruitful  trophies  of  civilization  from  Syria. 
The  Crusades,  properly  so  termed,  went  on 
with  intermission  between  1099  and  127L2. 
But  as  late  as  Clement  XL  (1700-1721)  the 
Roman  Pontiffs  were  still  lifting  up  the  cross 


PROLOGUE— THE   VATICAN  25 

against  the  crescent.     It  is  their  distinction 
and  their  glory. 

Investitures  had  been  settled  by  a  fair  com- 
promise between  Calixtus  II.  and  Henry  V. 
at  the  second  Council  of  Lateran  (1123), 
which  ratified  the  Concordat  of  Worms  and 
recognized  the  double  aspect  incident  to 
temporal  possessions  in  the  hands  of  the 
clergy.  But  if  we  assign  the  modern  move- 
ment in  politics,  philosophy,  and  letters  to  the 
twelfth  century,  we  must  look  to  Paris  and 
France  for  its  origin.  France  was  the  brain, 
the  eye,  the  armed  right  hand  of  mediaeval 
Europe.  Paris  now  became  to  Catholic 
studies  that  which  Athens  had  been  to  the 
Greeks, — a  living  university  where  ideas  and 
systems  fought  their  battle.  The  school 
philosophy — a  blend  of  Aristotle  and  Plato 
in  somewhat  disguised  Latin  forms  with 
Church  tradition — started  on  its  brilliant 
course  from  the  abbey  of  Bee  in  Normandy. 
Among  its  first  lights  were  Lanfranc  and  St. 
Anselm,  who  both  ruled  England  as  Arch- 
bishops of  Canterbury.  Urban  II.,  Calixtus 
II.,  were  French  Popes.  St.  Bernard,  king  of 
the  age,  soul  of  the  Second  Crusade,  dictator 
to  the  Vatican  itself,  where  Iris  disciple 
Eugenius   III.   reigned,   was   a  Burgundian. 


26      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Abelard  (1079-1142),  the  ancestor  of  Des- 
cartes and  Chateaubriand,  came  from  Brit- 
tany to  Paris,  and  there  opened  the  movement 
of  Free  Thought  by  his  amazing  audacity  and 
eloquence.  He  trained  Arnold  of  Brescia, 
democratic  agitator,  champion  of  the  "volun- 
tary system,"  who  was  opposed  to  temporal 
dominion  whether  of  Pope  or  bishop,  and 
who  died  a  martyr  under  the  Englishman, 
Hadrian  IV.,  on  account  of  his  opinions. 
Hadrian  broke  the  Roman  Republic  which 
Giordano  the  Patrician,  with  Arnold  to 
counsel  him,  had  set  up.  But  the  sturdy 
Saxon  found  a  terrible  opponent  in  Frederick 
Barbarossa,  the  HohenstaufFcn  Emperor; 
and  the  hundred  years'  war  between  Ghibel- 
linc  and  Guclf  may  be  dated  from  1155. 

Frederick  the  Rcdbeard  has  been  compared 
to  Hannibal  in  Italy.  His  twenty-two  years' 
struggle  with  Hadrian  IV.  and  Alexander  III., 
with  Lombard  cities  and  their  League  of 
Freedom,  was  an  effort  to  restore  in  the  West 
such  an  absolute  imperial  authority  as  the 
Emperor  of  Byzantium  exercised.  A  pure 
German,  he  claimed  to  be  the  old-lime  Caesar. 
His  appeal  rang  out  to  Roman  law,  and  was 
enforced  by  the  massacre  of  Roman  citizens, 
by  the  destruction  of  Milan  in  1162,  and  by 


PROLOGUE— THE  VATICAN  27 

the  usual  device  of  an  Anti-pope.  Ghibellines 
discovered  their  political  theory  in  the  Code 
and  Institutes  of  Justinian,  to  which  Irnerius 
at  Bologna  (about  1100)  had  drawn  his 
scholars'  attention.  This  proved  to  be  an 
event  of  far-reaching  importance.  Hitherto, 
the  Vatican  had  ruled  by  means  of  Canon 
Law,  to  which  only  barbarian  or  local  systems 
of  legislation  could  be  opposed.  But  now  the 
Emperor  (at  Roncaglia,  1158)  proclaimed  his 
boundless  rights  over  clergy  and  laity  in 
virtue  of  an  independent  Code,  which  the 
Popes  had  not  created  and  were  unable  to 
modify.  The  secular  State,  first  appearing  in 
the  shape  of  this  imperial  supremacy,  was 
born.  Frederick  would  not  hear  of  a  self- 
governing  Italy  or  a  Pope  who  declined  to 
be  his  subject.  Alexander  III.  called  upon 
Lombards,  Romans,  Venetians,  to  defend 
their  freedom;  and  in  1176,  thanks  to  the  vic- 
tory of  Legnano,  Alexander  won.  He  took  the 
public  homage  of  Barbarossa,  himself  throned 
at  St.  Mark's,  Venice,  while  the  Emperor  bent 
his  knee  on  July  24,  1177.  But  there  was 
now  a  duel  to  the  death  between  the  Hohen- 
stauffen  and  the  Papacy.  Guelf  and  Ghibel- 
line  tore  Italian  civilization  to  pieces.  By 
the  marriage  of  Redbeard's  son  Henry  V,  to 


28      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Constance,  Sicily  was  added  to  the  Empire; 
their  child  was  the  accomplished,  fascinating, 
unhappy  Frederick  II. ,  in  whose  tomb  at 
Palermo  the  dynasty  lies  buried  (1198-1250). 
We  have  come  to  Innocent  III.  (1198-1216), 
who  put  the  Western  Church  in  possession 
of  Constantinople  by  the  Fourth  Crusade; 
who  set  up  Emperors  in  Germany  and  pulled 
them  down  again;  who  smote  the  Albigenses 
in  a  religious  war  until  they  were  consumed; 
who  brought  King  John  to  his  knees  in  the 
Temple  Church  at  London,  and  made  Eng- 
land a  fief  of  the  Holy  See;  who  gave  to  Italy 
peace  and  good  laws;  who  had  for  his  cham- 
pions the  Friars,  sent  forth  over  Christendom 
by  Francis  and  Dominic;  and  who,  lastly,  by 
recognizing  Frederick  II.  as  lawful  Ca?sar,  be- 
queathed to  his  own  successors  an  Iliad  of 
woes.  The  thirteenth  century  saw  Cathol- 
icism triumph  in  its  mighty  volumes  of 
Canon  Law — the  Decretals.  It  beheld  the 
glory  of  scholastic  wisdom  in  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas.  It  served  as  a  stage  to  the  tragedy 
of  the  Hohenstauffen, — Frederick  II.  deposed 
at  the  Council  of  Lyons  in  1215  by  Inno- 
cent IV.;  Conradin  executed  on  the  scaffold 
at  Naples  in  1208.  Its  culminating  point  was 
perhaps  reached  in  1274,  when  Gregory  X. 


PROLOGUE— THE  VATICAN  29 

sat  in  another  Council  of  Lyons  amid  five 
hundred  bishops,  seventy  abbots,  and  a 
thousand  of  the  clergy.  The  Churches  of 
East  and  West  uttered  there  a  common 
creed  and  acknowledged  one  Pope,  who 
confirmed  Rudolph  of  Habsburg  as  German 
Emperor,  recognized  the  claims  of  Michael 
Paleologus  to  the  throne  of  Constantinople, 
and  laid  down  wise  rules  for  Papal  elections 
in  the  future.  But  with  Frederick  II.  had 
in  truth  expired  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 
The  long  succession  of  Teutons  henceforth 
proceeds  on  a  line  of  its  own,  not  that  traced 
by  Charlemagne  or  seen  in  vision  by  Dante. 
In  France  St.  Louis  leaves  the  world  to  Philip 
the  Fair  and  his  lawyers.  The  last  Crusade 
is  over  in  1272.  When  Acre  falls  in  1291 
the  Holy  Land  ceases  to  inspire  European 
politics.  When  Boniface  VIII.  was  elected 
Pope  at  Naples,  in  December,  1294,  and  the 
great  Jubilee  followed  in  1300,  a  catastrophe 
was  hanging  over  the  Papacy  with  which 
we  may  affirm  that  the  Middle  Ages  came  to 
an  end. 

This  change  from  sacerdotal  to  secular 
supremacy,  or  from  the  hieratic  to  the  modern 
State,  had  been  long  preparing.  Norman 
Kings  like  William  of  England  and  Henry 


30      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

II. ;  Sicilian,  of  the  same  blood,  not  less 
determined  and  astute;  Aragonese  and  An- 
gevin, quarrelling  for  the  succession  of 
Naples;  all  these  were  driven  by  a  similar 
impulse,  which  they  obeyed  without  seeking 
to  explain  it.  The  Franconian  Emperors 
did  not  realize  that  its  philosophy  might  be 
found  in  legislation  stamped  with  the  names 
of  Justinian,  Theodosius,  and  the  Antonines. 
But  Barbarossa  knew,  and  Frederick  II. 
acted  upon  this  memorable  discovery.  They 
underwent  defeat.  The  idea  of  an  Imperial 
law,  a  crown  not  granted  by  the  Vatican,  a 
subjection  to  the  king  from  which  no  exemp- 
tion might  be  pleaded,  was  at  length  trans- 
lated into  French  terms  and  carried  into  exe- 
cution by  French  logic.  Disputes  of  a  transient 
importance  had  arisen  between  Boniface  VIII. 
and  Philip  the  Fair.  Boniface  upheld  ancient 
clerical  immunities,  the  doctrine  of  the  two 
swords,  the  deposing  power,  in  language  bor- 
rowed from  Innocent  III.,  from  Gregory  VII. 
Philip  answered  with  scorn  and  defiance. 
The  Pope  fixed  a  day  for  his  deposition, 
September  8,  1303.  On  the  day  preceding, 
Nogaret,  Philip's  minister  of  vengeance,  rode 
into  Anngni  with  three  hundred  horse,  and 
the    mediaeval,    the   sacred    order   of    things 


PROLOGUE— THE   VATICAN  31 

which  had  lasted  under  conflict  during  five 
centuries,  expired  in  that  crime  which  Dante 
has  likened  to  the  crucifixion  itself: 

"  Lo,  the  flower  de  luce 
Enters  Alagna;   in  His  Vicar  Christ 
Himself  a  captive,  and  His  mockery 
Acted  again." 

The  story  which  we  now  attempt  begins 
when  Boniface  is  dead,  the  Vatican  deserted, 
King  Philip  master  of  the  Sacred  College, 
and  Avignon  looms  on  the  horizon.  It 
fills  five  hundred  and  seventy  years,  more 
than  as  much  as  the  sad  and  glorious  period 
from  Charlemagne  to  this  "new  Pilate,"  in 
whose  keeping  the  successor  of  St.  Peter  lay 
a  prisoner.  Its  commencements  are  tragical; 
but  it  shows  the  power  of  the  Spirit  traversing 
many  vicissitudes;  by  captivity  and  schism, 
by  Renaissance  and  Reformation,  by  heresies 
and  enlightenment  and  a  still  greater  French 
Revolution  arriving  at  an  independence  of 
earthly  forces,  most  honourable  to  the 
something  in  man  which  despises  outward 
constraint.  These  highest  things  always 
admit  of  an  interpretation  according  to  the 
mind  that  views  them.  To  measure  their 
greatness  demands  sympathy;  and  sympathy 
is  kindled  only  by  a  vivid   fancy,    a  heart 


32      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

susceptible  to  human  touches,  to  pity  and 
love.  The  Vatican  is  a  name  more  august 
than  the  Parthenon,  more  abounding  in 
situations  that  excite  all  human  emotions 
than  the  stage  of  Dionysus  at  Athens,  full 
of  millennial  hopes  and  the  pathos  of  man's 
history,  not  yet  illuminated  by  any  visible 
and  reconciling  last  scene.  To  the  Catholic 
who  reads,  I  would  commend  the  exercise  of 
his  faith,  having  trust  in  the  event,  tw  re\et 
iviGTiv  (frepcov.  To  the  general  student  and 
curious  dilettante  in  man's  ways,  let  me  say, 
"These  too  had  their  sorrows,  their  heavy 
task,  ere  they  passed  into  the  unknown. 
Remember  that  they  were  like  unto  thee  as 
thou  art  like  unto  them.  We  will  look  over 
these  chronicles  together,  and  learn  from 
them  how  divine,  how  helpless,  how  much 
to  be  pitied  and  wondered  at  a  thing  is 
human  nature." 


CHAPTER  I 

FROM    AVIGNON     TO     CONSTANCE     (1305-1417 
DANTE,    PURG.    XXXIl) 

When,  on  December  29,  1170,  Thomas 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was  murdered  in 
his  cathedral,  the  King  whose  satellites  had 
wrought  this  great  outrage  lost  all  he  had 
been  contending  for.  Retribution  followed 
on  the  heels  of  sacrilege;  and  Henry  II. 
bared  his  back  to  scourging  at  the  martyr's 
tomb.  Clerical  immunities  were  saved  in 
England.  The  royal  supremacy  was  ad- 
journed for  three  hundred  and  sixty  years. 
Very  different  were  the  consequences  of  that 
morning  at  Anagni.  Philip  not  only  kept 
his  threatened  crown;  he  led  the  Papacy 
captive.  Benedict  XL,  a  mild  Dominican, 
who  for  one  moment  occupied  St.  Peter's 
Chair,  released  the  French  King  and  his 
people  from  censure.  He  explained  the 
Papal  document  "Clericis  laicos"  so  that 
it  should  not  imply  feudal  claims  over  the 
realm  of  St.  Louis.  He  died  (by  poison,  said 
the  vulgar  talk);  a  vacancy  of  nine  months 

33 


34      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

ensued;  and  Philip  in  secret  made  an  unholy 
compact  with  Bertrand,  Archbishop  of  Bor- 
deaux, by  which  the  tiara  was  sold  and 
bought.  The  King  undertook  to  have  his 
Gascon  subject  chosen;  the  Gascon  promised 
to  condemn  Boniface;  to  grant  full  pardon 
for  the  past;  to  give  the  Colonna  their  lands 
again;  and,  as  is  thought,  to  let  Philip 
plunder  and  destroy  the  Knights  Templars. 
Bertrand  was  elected,  crowned  at  Lyons, 
and  speedily  environed  with  a  college  of 
French  Cardinals.  He  never  set  foot  in 
Rome.  He  revoked  the  Bull  "Clericis" 
and  gave  a  non-contentious  meaning  to  the 
"Unam  Sanctam"  which  had  haughtily 
asserted  the  doctrine  of  the  two  swords,  one 
to  be  wielded,  the  other  to  be  guided  by 
Christ's  Vicar  on  earth.  In  130!)  Clement  Y. 
took  up  his  abode  at  Avignon,  a  city  belonging 
to  Philip's  kinsman,  Charles  II.  of  Naples. 
The  seventy  years  of  Babylonish  captivity 
had  begun.  Seven  French  Popes  ruled  in  suc- 
cession from  the  wind-swept  heights  and  in  the 
sunburnt  luxurious  palace* — a  fortress,  church, 
prison,  as  it  proved — of  this  false  Borne. 

Hitherto,  France  had  offered  a  constant 
refuge  to  the  Pontiffs  in  their  troubles.  As 
far  back  as  7.54  Stephen  III.  had  taken  shelter 


AVIGNON  TO  CONSTANCE  35 

with  Pepin  at  Ponthion  from  the  Lombard 
Astolf.  John  VIII.,  after  874,  fled  to  Louis 
the  Stammerer.  Leo  IX.  at  Rheims,  in  1050, 
deposed  simoniacal  French  prelates,  and 
demonstrated  the  Primacy  by  Canon  Law. 
Hildebrand  at  Tours,  as  Papal  commissioner, 
put  down  the  free-thinking  Bercngar;  under 
Victor  II.  he  compelled  a  multitude  of  guilty 
bishops  and  dignitaries  to  surrender  their 
ill-gotten  trusts.  Urban  II. ,  French  by 
extraction,  announced  the  First  Crusade  at 
Clermont  in  1095,  while  Philip  L,  King  of 
France,  lay  under  the  Church's  ban.  Calix- 
tus  II.,  formerly  Guido  of  Vienne,  renewed  the 
Truce  of  Cod  at  Rheims  in  1119,  while 
Henry  I.  of  England  and  Louis  VI.  pleaded 
before  his  tribunal  against  each  other. 
Eugenius  III.  took  refuge  at  Dijon  in  1147. 
For  three  years  Alexander  III.,  escaping 
from  Barbarossa,  became  Louis  VII. 's  guest 
at  Courcy-sur-Loire.  In  the  French  city  of 
Lyons  (as  yet  Imperial  and  Free)  two  General 
Councils  were  held — that  of  1245  by  Innocent 
IV.,  and  that  of  1274  by  Gregory  X.  Gallic 
influences  were  now  prevailing  in  the  Sacred 
College.  In  12G1  Pantaleon  of  Troves  was 
made  Pope  Urban  IV.  He  offered  the  crown 
of  Naples  to  St.  Louis,  who  would  not  accept 


36      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

it.  Then  this  disposer  of  kingdoms  bestowed 
it  on  Charles  of  Anjou,  Count  of  Provence. 
Clement  IV.,  a  southern  Frank,  succeeded  to 
Urban  in  1265;  during  his  stormy  reign 
Manfred  was  defeated  and  slain  at  Benevento, 
Conradin  perished;  Charles  of  Anjou  then 
dictated  the  Papal  elections.  Martin  IV.,  a 
Frenchman  of  Tours,  came  on  in  1281.  Next 
year  the  Sicilians  massacred  their  French 
masters  and  gave  themselves  to  Aragon 
(the  Sicilian  Vespers,  Easter  Tuesday,  1282). 
It  was  from  the  Counts  of  Provence,  to  whom 
the  Holy  See  had  presented  Naples  on  a 
feudal  tenure,  that  Clement  V.  received  hospi- 
tality at  Avignon  in  April,  1309. 

Philip  the  Fair  had  thus  accomplished  a  de- 
sign which,  five  centuries  later,  tempted  Napo- 
leon to  imitate  it;  but  the  mighty  Emperor 
failed  where  the  King  succeeded.  In  truth, 
its  long  struggle  with  Teutonic  Cai'sars  and 
the  Ghibellines  of  many  Italian  cities  had 
exhausted  the  strength  as  well  as  daunted 
the  courage,  even  of  unwearied  Rome.  For 
a  long  and  dreary  interval,  Vatican  and 
Capitol  lay  desolate.  Many  Pontiffs  had 
been  driven  into  exile;  but  an  absentee 
Pope,  deliberately  resident  beyond  the  bounds 
of  Italy,  struck  men  as  something  portentous; 


AVIGNON  TO   CONSTANCE  37 

and  patriots  now  with  Dante,  Petrarch, 
Ricnzi  lamented  or  rebelled  against  the  dis- 
crowning of  their  native  land,  to  heighten 
Gallic  insolence.  Dante,  born  three  centuries 
before  Shakespeare  (1265-1564)  burns  into 
his  glowing  enamel  the  figures  which  he 
loved  and  hated,  stamping  with  infamy 
Boniface,  Clement,  John  XXII.,  Philip  and 
his  kinsfolk,  one  among  whom,  Charles  of 
Valois,  gave  occasion  that  the  poet  should 
suffer  lifelong  banishment  from  Florence.  An 
ardent  Ghibelline  henceforth,  the  exile's  hopes 
were  blasted  by  the  untimely  death  in  1313  of 
Henry  of  Luxemburg.  Dying  himself  broken- 
hearted at  Ravenna,  seven  years  afterwards, 
Alighieri  left  his  "mystic  unfathomable  song" 
to  body  forth  in  its  gloom  and  splendours, 
by  its  tears  of  fire  and  mingling  of  angelic 
harmonics  with  outbursts  of  violent  passion 
against  those  who  had  done  him  wrong,  the 
very  "form  and  pressure"  of  his  age. 

But  now,  says  Lord  Acton,  "the  Popes 
were  forced  to  rely  on  the  protection  of 
France;  their  supremacy  over  the  states 
was  at  an  end;  and  the  resistance  of  the 
nations  commenced."  Germany  led  the  way. 
Though  Clement  V.  was  the  creature  and 
the   tool   of  King  Philip,   sacrificing  to  his 


38      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

greed  the  Templars  (1310),  he  found  some 
compensation  in  having  behind  him  the 
strength  of  France.  He  was  free  from  the 
tumults  which  in  Rome  had  so  often  com- 
pelled the  Popes  to  bow  under  a  popular 
yoke.  In  1313  Clement  interpreted  the  oath 
taken  by  an  elected  "King  of  the  Romans" 
to  the  Holy  See  as  an  act  of  feudal  homage. 
He  appointed  Robert  of  Naples  as  Imperial 
Vicar  in  Italy.  When  he  died  and  John  XXII. 
succeeded,  the  Germans  who  stood  by  Louis 
of  Bavaria  began  their  long  quarrel  with 
Avignon,  which  may  be  described  as  a 
rehearsal  between  1322  and  1347  of  the 
Reformation  on  a  minor  scale. 

It  was  not  the  vacillating  Bavarian  that 
signified,  but  under  his  flag  were  collected 
many  forces  until  then  separate.  John  XXII. 
(of  Cahors),  a  severe  Church  lawyer,  who 
brought  in  the  later  system  of  Papal  finance, 
could  not  suffer  Louis  to  assume  the  title 
of  Rex  Romanorum — which  carried  with  it 
the  Imperial  succession — unless  he  sought  its 
confirmation  from  the  Pope.  But  to  German 
feeling  the  Pope  and  France  were  now  iden- 
tical. Weak  as  the  Empire  might  be,  its 
princes  would  not  yield.  The  crown  lawyers 
pleaded   against     Canon   Law.     They    were 


AVIGNON  TO  CONSTANCE  39 

supported  by  Marsilius  of  Padua,  then  high 
in  the  Paris  University,  and  more  strangely 
still,  by  the  Franciscan  General,  Michael  of 
Cesena,  and  by  the  leading  philosopher  of  the 
day,  William  of  Qekhani  (called  Occam  by 
foreign  writers),  also  a  Minorite  Friar.  These 
men  drew,  from  different  points  of  the  com- 
pass, towards  a  political  theory  with  which 
the  claims  of  any  and  every  Pope  would  be  in- 
compatible. Fierce  contentions  had  broken 
the  Order  of  Assisi  into  Spirituals,  who  held  a 
mystic  and  extreme  view  of  monastic  poverty, 
and  Moderates,  who  conformed  in  principle 
to  the  received  ideas.  To  the  Spirituals, 
overcome  in  previous  contests,  the  Papacy 
now  seemed  a  carnal  Church;  they  called 
the  Pope  Antichrist;  they  longed  for  the 
new  dispensation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
preached  the  "Eternal  Gospel"  announced 
by  the  Calabrian  prophet,  Joachim  of  Flora 
(1145-1202).  They  revered  the  memory  of 
Celestine  V.  who,  in  Dante's  contemptuous 
language,  "by  cowardice  made  the  great 
refusal."  Now  these  "Little  Brethren" 
(Fraticelli)  brought  their  wild  doctrines  and 
unconquerable  fanaticism  to  aid  in  setting  up 
an  Emperor  whose  will  should  be  law,  while 
St.   Peter's  successor  lived  as  a  mendicant 


40      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

friar.  John  XXII.  was  the  last  man  to  accept 
such  a  position.  "Spiritual"  heretics  were 
condemned  and  executed  at  Narbonne,  at 
Toulouse,  and  elsewhere.  Then  Michael  of 
Cesena  revolted.  Occam  opposed  the  Bible 
to  the  Church,  rejected  the  Pope's  infallible 
teaching,  and  disowned  the  Temporal  Power. 
When  Luther  came  to  a  full  knowledge  of 
himself,  he  recognized  his  master  in  Occam, 
the  "Irrefragable  Doctor." 

But  in  the  eyes  of  modern  readers  it  is 
Marsilius  of  Padua,  the  cool-headed  student 
and  no  fanatic,  that  will  claim  importance. 
His  "Defender  of  the  Peace"  appeared  in 
1327.  It  represented  the  whole  community 
as  sovereign  lawgiver  and  the  "prince"  as 
holding  of  the  people.  Clerics,  including  I  lie 
Pope,  have  no  right  to  exercise  "coercive" 
jurisdiction;  they  may  persuade,  they  must 
not  compel  by  temporal  pains  and  penal  lies. 
Like  other  men,  they  are  subject  to  the 
common  law,  not  exempt,  nor  entitled  to 
courts  of  their  own.  Excommunication  does 
not  belong  to  an  individual  priest;  it  should 
be  the  act  of  the  body  altogether,  i.e.  of  the 
State.  As  regards  heresy,  the  civil  power 
deals  with  it  only  as  an  infraction  of  public 
order.      The   prince    ought    to    appoint    and 


AVIGNON  TO  CONSTANCE  41 

deprive  ecclesiastics.  In  fine,  the  plenitude  of 
Papal  power  is  the  corruption  of  the  Church. 

These  were  startling  doctrines.  They  an- 
ticipate Luther  by  two  centuries.  They  were 
acted  on  by  Henry  VIII.  and  Elizabeth. 
Erastus,  the  Swiss,  with  whose  name  it  is 
usual  to  associate  them,  did  not  write  until 
15GS,  nor  Grotius,  the  Dutch  Arminian,  who 
is  more  properly  their  representative,  until 
1601  and  1625.  We  trace  them  fully  devel- 
oped, with  peculiar  applications,  in  Hobbes' 
"Leviathan"  and  Rousseau's  "Social  Con- 
tract." Wherever  they  prevail,  the  mediaeval 
idea  of  a  Catholic  Church  supreme  over  all 
authorities  by  direct  or  indirect  jurisdiction 
from  on  high,  finds  an  enemy  in  law  as  well 
as  in  practice.  Thanks,  on  the  whole,  to 
this  Marsilian  view,  the  "secular  State" 
flourishes  in  Latin  countries.  Vigorously 
condemned  by  Clement  VI.,  and  rightly 
assimilated  by  Gregory  XL  in  1377  to  the 
system  of  Wycliffc,  it  reversed  the  position 
held  since  Gregory  VII.  at  common  law  in 
Western  Christendom,  putting  instead  of  the 
Papal  Monarch  an  absolute  prince  of  this 
world,  from  whom  there  was  no  appeal. 

Louis  of  Bavaria  halted  many  leagues 
this  side  of  Marsilius.    True,  he  went  down 


42      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

into  Italy,  was  chosen  Emperor  by  the  pop- 
ulace in  Rome  (1328),  set  up  as  anti-pope  a 
Minorite  friar  calling  himself  Nicholas  V., 
and,  with  intervals  of  submission,  continued 
Emperor  till  1347.  But  his  end  was  defeat. 
When  he  died,  and  an  orthodox  Catholic, 
Charles  of  Bohemia,  humbly  accepted  the 
Pope's  bidding,  "it  might  seem  to  Clement 
VI.,"  says  Creighton,  "that  Boniface  VIII. 
had  been  avenged,  and  that  the  majesty 
and  dignity  of  the  Papal  power  had  been 
amply  vindicated." 

Avignon,  melancholy  as  the  name  sounds 
in  retrospect,  could  not  but  appear  as  a 
brilliant  scene  and  highly  successful  Court 
of  the  Vv'est  to  French  pontiffs.  Their  wealth 
became  immense;  their  luxury  has  passed 
into  a  proverb.  No  longer  able  to  count 
on  the  revenues  of  Rome  or  the  gifts  of 
pilgrims  to  St.  Peter's  shrine,  John  XXII. 
had  perfected  a  scheme  of  reservations, 
expectatives,  annats,  and  other  sources  of 
income  which  for  the  time  brought  him  in 
rich.es  beyond  calculation.  In  principle,  no 
Catholic  would  refuse  to  contribute  towards 
the  necessary  expenditure  of  a  system  which 
was  international,  open  to  virtue  and  ability 
through  all  its  degrees.     The  Pope  also,  as 


AVIGNON  TO  CONSTANCE  43 

Father  of  the  Faithful,  was  the  only  possible 
guardian  of  the  war-chest  accumulated  for 
defence  against  Mohammedan  assaults. 
Parliaments  granted  subsidies,  the  clergy 
were  taxed  by  Curial  enactments,  and  in 
their  assemblies  were  willing  to  tax  them- 
selves, on  this  understanding.  But  very  great 
abuses  followed.  "The  Avignon  system  of 
finance,"  says  Pastor,  a  most  competent  wit- 
ness, "contributed  more  than  has  been  gen- 
erally supposed,  to  the  undermining  of  the 
Papal  authority,"  and  it  "soon  aroused  pas- 
sionate resistance."  Among  the  evils  which  it 
fostered,  none  perhaps  wrought  more  deadly 
harm  than  the  intrusion  of  foreigners,  French 
or  Italian  chiefly,  into  English  and  other 
Northern  sees  and  benefices.  These  men 
were,  as  a  rule,  non-resident;  their  claim 
was  felt  as  a  burden;  and  from  the  time 
of  Henry  III.  to  Richard  II.  a  scries  of 
protests,  passing  into  legislative  acts  (Pro- 
visors  and  Praemunire,  1351-1353),  warned 
thoughtful  men  that  resistance  might  turn  to 
revolt.  In  Germany  "grievances"  now  be- 
came a  standing  quarrel,  which  was  never 
laid  to  rest  until  the  catastrophe  of  1520  had 
been  precipitated  beyond  recovery. 

While    Avignon    flourished    in    the    sun, 


44      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Rome  fell  desolate.  Benedict  XII.  began 
in  1339,  high  above  the  banks  of  the  turbid 
Rhone,  that  vast  palace-prison  (des  Doras), 
which  seemed  as  if  destined  to  be  the  "eternal 
abode,"  says  Gregorovius,  of  the  Papacy. 
Clement  VI.,  from  Limoges  (1342-1352),  was 
learned,  gracious,  extravagantly  profuse, 
addicted  even  more  than  other  French 
pontiffs  to  nepotism.  He  has  left  a  doubtful 
reputation;  he  had  quite  abandoned  the 
thought  of  returning  to  the  Apostolic  See. 
But  the  ruins  and  the  walls  of  Rome  were 
eloquent.  In  1341  Petrarch  had  been  crowned 
with  laurel  as  first  of  living  poets  on  the 
Capitol.  With  his  delicate  Italian  verse  and 
flowing  Latin  prose,  no  longer  unpolished  and 
barbarous,  the  Renaissance  was  attempting 
its  first  flight.  Again,  if  Clement  VI.  would 
not  take  possession  of  his  Lateran  basilica, 
there  was  another  that  would,  and  did — 
Rienzi,  called  "Last  of  the  Tribunes,"  a 
strange  figure  suddenly  visible  to  all  Italy, 
clad  in  shreds  and  tatters  of  imperial  purple, 
and  for  seven  months  a  stage  Augustus 
whom  nobles  and  plebeians  obeyed  (May- 
December,   1347). 

Rienzi    was   a   Roman,    a   kind    of   artist, 
an  orator  and  a  dreamer,  intoxicated  with 


AVIGNON  TO  CONSTANCE  45 

antiquity.  He  had  seen  Avignon,  charmed 
the  Pope,  won  Petrarch's  friendship.  At 
Whitsuntide,  May  20,  1347,  he  inaugurated 
the  Revolution  which  was  to  execute  the 
"Laws  of  the  Good  Estate,"  in  plain  terms, 
of  the  Roman  Republic.  lie  did  not  deny 
Clement's  authority,  but  passed  beyond  it. 
Within  fifteen  days  all  orders,  including  the 
Patricians,  and  at  their  head  Colonna,  took 
the  popular  oath.  Rienzi  was  named  dictator 
for  life.  He  ruled  justly,  received  appeals 
from  Joan  of  Naples  and  Charles  of  Durazzo, 
was  knighted  in  the  Lateran,  and  sent 
banners  to  twenty-five  Italian  republics — 
among  them  Florence  and  Siena.  He  was 
crowned  with  seven  crowns  in  August; 
was  denounced  from  Avignon,  was  over- 
thrown, and  became  a  fugitive  to  the  Frati- 
celli,  who  hid  themselves  among  the  glens 
of  the  Abruzzi,  in  December.  The  year 
1348  is  marked  as  a  dividing  line  between 
mediaeval  and  modern  Europe;  for  it  brought 
the  Black  Death,  which  swept  off  one- 
third  at  least  of  the  population  everywhere. 
Clement  VI.  lived  in  quarantine  behind 
his  thick  walls,  and  would  admit  no  man 
to  audience.  Next  year  came  the  Jubilee, 
when   Rome   was   crowded.     A   great   wave 


46      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

of  religious  excitement  passed  over  the 
nations.  Iiicnzi,  now  most  likely  insane, 
went  on  a  prophet's  errand  to  Charles  IV. 
at  Prague.  Charles  gave  him  up  to  Clem- 
ent, who  put  him  in  prison,  but  did  not 
take  away  his  "Livy"  or  his  Bible — books  on 
which  Rienzi  fed  his  mind.  Innocent  VI., 
an  admirable  Pope  (1352-13G2),  made  the 
warlike  Cardinal  Albornoz  his  legate  to 
Rome,  and  despatched  Rienzi  with  him  in 
1353.  The  former  Tribune  now  became 
Senator;  but  his  mad  caprice  and  "unmiti- 
gated tyranny"  drove  the  people  to  rebel. 
On  October  8,  1354,  he  was  murdered  below 
the  lion's  cage  at  the  foot  of  the  Capitol. 

Marsilius  of  Padua  had  foreseen  and 
delineated  the  absolute  State  which  was  to 
come  in  when  Empire  and  Papacy  had  lost 
the  joint  rule  of  Christendom.  Rienzi 
believed  in  "a  confederation,  with  Rome 
for  its  head,  under  a  Latin  Emperor  elected 
by  the  people."  Italy  was  to  be  united  and 
independent.  By  this  strictly  national 
conception  Rienzi  transcended  the  Dantean 
ideas  which  we  read  in  "De  Monarchia"; 
for  Dante's  Holy  Roman  Empire  would  have 
been  something  like  the  Church,  universal, 
not  simply  Latin,  though  continuing  Csesar. 


AVIGNON  TO  CONSTANCE  47 

But  the  Tribune,  as  Machiavelli  did  two 
centuries  and  a  half  later,  bestowed  on  his 
time  an  image  of  Italy  free,  self-sustained, 
indivisible;  and  that  almost  in  the  hour 
when  Charles  IV.,  by  his  electors'  Golden 
Bull  of  1355,  created  the  new  German  Empire. 
Tacitly,  Charles  renounced  interference  in 
the  Peninsula.  The  Alps  became  a  political 
boundary.  Meanwhile,  the  Spaniard,  A\- 
bornoz,  subdued  the  Papal  States,  north  and 
south  (1358).  Rome  expressed  again  its 
allegiance  to  an  absentee  Bishop.  Innocent 
VI.  was  followed  in  1362  by  a  saintly 
Benedictine  monk,  Urban  V.,  who  broke 
the  chain  of  captivity,  despite  his  cardinals, 
and  went  back  amid  the  world's  applause  to 
Rome,  in  1367.  It  was  upwards  of  sixty-two 
years  since  the  Vatican  had  witnessed  St. 
Peter's  successor  kneeling  at  St.  Peter's 
shrine,  and  singing  mass  at  the  high  altar. 

But  how  times  were  changed!  Philip 
the  Fair  might  have  brought  down  a  curse 
on  his  dynasty;  for  the  line  of  Capet  lost 
all  its  male  heirs.  The  hundred  years'  war 
was  to  end  on  both  sides  of  the  Channel 
in  a  royal  despotism.  French  power  had 
sunk  to  the  lowest  ebb;  it  could  no  longer 
threaten  or  uphold  the  Papacy  at  Avignon. 


48      PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

Edward  III.  of  England  was  little  disposed 
to  grant  more  than  lip  obedience  to  one  who 
had  been  a  French  subject.  Petrarch  raised 
his  voice  in  stern  rebuke  of  the  sinful  city 
on  the  Rhone.  At  last  the  Pope  said  Mass 
in  St.  Peter's;  he  crowned  Charles  IV.  in 
13C8  where  Charlemagne  had  lain  prostrate 
■ — it  was  a  splendid  but  hollow  ceremony — 
and  two  years  afterwards  returned  to  his 
more  pleasant  exile  at  Avignon,  though 
speedily  to  die.  Gregory  XL,  nephew  of 
Clement  VI.,  amiable,  erudite,  pious,  but  no 
strong  character,  who  came  next,  made  a 
secret  vow  that  he  would  restore  the  Holy  See 
to  Rome.  Unless  it  were  soon  done,  tyrants 
like  the  Visconti,  "vipers  of  Milan,"  or  Free 
Companies  like  that  of  Hawkwood,  the 
Englishman,  might  be  expected  to  carve 
princedoms  for  themselves  out  of  the  Church's 
ill-governed  provinces.  Even  Florence,  Guelf 
and  Catholic  beyond  all  other  cities,  was  at 
war  with  the  Pope.  St.  Brigit  of  Sweden 
uttered  her  warning;  a  still  more  exquisite 
and  singularly  winning  apparition,  St. 
Catherine  of  Siena,  who  may  perhaps  be 
termed  the  Italian  Joan  of  Arc,  was  beheld 
in  the  court  at  Avignon,  as  messenger  of  peace 
from  Florence.     To  her  pleadings  and   the 


"OBEDIENCES"  AND   "NATIONS"   40 

force  of  events  Gregory  yielded.  The 
Florentines  vehemently  protested  that  his 
coming  would  destroy  Italian  freedom.  But 
on  January  15,  1377,  he  sailed  up  the  Tiber 
to  St.  Paul's  on  the  Ostian  Way,  and  so 
entered  Rome.  To  restore  peace  he  found 
was  beyond  his  power.  Robert  of  Geneva, 
the  handsome  and  truculent  soldier-cardinal, 
taking  into  his  pay  Breton  mercenaries  as 
well  as  Hawkwood's  desperadoes,  smote 
Faenza  and  Cesena  with  a  horrible  slaughter, 
in  which  thousands  perished.  Gregory  him- 
self expired  on  March  27,  1378,  and  his  death 
opened  an  immediate  way  to  the  Great 
Schism  of  the  West. 

Section  II 

THE  "OBEDIENCES"  AND  THE  "NATIONS " 

(1378-1417) 

Whether  Bartholomew  Prignani,  Archbishop 
of  Bari,  chosen  by  all  the  Cardinals  assembled 
in  the  Vatican  while  the  Roman  mob  howled 
at  their  gates,  was  lawful  Pope,  is  a  question 
never  formally  decided.  If  he  was,  the 
succession  at  Rome  from  1378  of  Urban  VI. 
and  his  line  carries  the  Papacy  forward; 
any  other  cannot  be  recognized.     This,  also, 


50      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

appears  to  be  the  almost  unanimous  opinion 
of  historians  on  the  Catholic  side.  It  prevails 
in  the  Roman  Chancery.  From  a  different 
point  of  view,  and  regarding  the  national 
interests  or  rivalries  which  gave  birth  to  the 
Reformation,  we  may  consider  the  Great 
Schism  as  an  attempt,  premature  but  fertile 
in  consequences,  to  break  up  mediaeval  Eu- 
rope ecclesiastically  among  the  French,  Ital- 
ians, Spaniards,  Germans,  and  English.  The 
"nations"  that  voted  at  Constance  were 
superseding  and  casting  aside  the  Empire. 
They  were  also,  in  fact,  debating  whether 
each  of  the  European  chief  divisions  should 
not  have  its  own  Church.  Instead  of  the 
one  Pope,  General  Councils  were  to  govern; 
and  under  this  parliamentary  system,  as  it 
turned  out,  laymen  would  control  the  clergy, 
while  the  civil  ruler  took  to  himself  supreme 
jurisdiction,  and  the  Roman  Pontiff  sank 
to  be  a  Doge  of  Venice.  These  were  the 
real  points  in  dispute.  On  the  surface 
it  was  a  matter  of  Canon  Law  to  be  settled 
by  jurists.  And  in  its  earlier  stages  the  Schism 
renewed  that  long  debate  between  Rome 
and  Avignon,  on  the  part  of  French  Cardinals 
who  would  not  stay  to  be  the  sport  of  a 
people.     ''France  and  Italy,"'  says 


"OBEDIENCES"  AND   "NATIONS"    51 

an  English  writer,  "were  at  strife  for  the 
Popedom."  That  was  the  salient,  but  by  no 
means  the  ultimate,  issue. 

Urban  VI.  had  been  elected  and  obeyed 
by  all  the  Cardinals  who  now  at  Fondi,  in 
September,  1378,  voted  for  Robert  of  Geneva. 
They  made  him,  so  far  as  lay  in  their  power, 
Pope  by  the  name  of  Clement  VII.  After 
sundry  adventures,  Robert  fled  from  Naples 
to  Marseilles,  and,  entering  the  deserted 
palace  of  Avignon,  became  to  France  and 
Scotland  St.  Peter's  true  successor.  The 
lines  of  demarcation  were  strictly  political, 
not  drawn  from  religious  motives  at  all. 
Milman  has  described  them  with  an  ironic 
touch.  "Italy,  excepting  the  Kingdom  of 
Joanna  of  Naples,"  he  says,  "adhered  to 
her  native  pontiff;  Germany  and  Bohemia 
to  the  pontiff  who  had  recognized  King 
Wenceslaus  as  Emperor;  England  to  the 
pontiff  hostile  to  France;  Hungary  to  the 
pontiff  who  might  support  her  pretensions 
to  Naples;  Poland  and  the  Northern  king- 
doms, with  Portugal,  espoused  the  same 
cause."  An  extraordinary  man,  Cardinal 
Pedi-o  de  Lima,  whose  fortune  it  was  to 
create  the  Schism,  to  continue  it,  and  to 
survive  it,  had  first  managed  the  election  of 


52      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Urban,  then  denied  him  in  favour  of  the 
Antipope,  and  now  detached  from  Rome 
the  Spanish  kingdoms,  Castile,  Aragon,  and 
Navarre.  This  Pope-maker  was  not  a  dis- 
edifying  soldier  in  a  cassock,  such  as  Robert 
of  Geneva  had  been.  Neither  was  he  half- 
mad  and  horribly  cruel,  as  Urban  speedily 
showed  himself  to  be.  Pedro  de  Luna  pos- 
sessed many  of  the  great  qualities  which  went 
to  the  making  of  Hildebrand.  Blameless  in 
conduct,  he  was  learned  and  devout,  dex- 
terous and  winning,  but  over-subtle  and  ob- 
stinate as  a  Spaniard  or  an  Arab  in  pursuing 
his  own  fancy.  To  him,  who  revered  St. 
Catherine  of  Siena,  and  who  longed  to  see  the 
Church  renewed,  this  forty  years'  division  of 
Christendom  is  mainly  due.  He  was  by  far 
the  strongest  character  among  the  popes, 
kings,  prelates,  and  politicians  who  attempted 
to  deal  with  it.  Pedro  de  Luna,  historically 
speaking,  was  a  Gregory  VII.  committed 
to  a  false  and  fatal  position.  It  required  a 
Council  of  the  whole  Church  to  put  him  down; 
but  in  his  own  thought  he  died  a  conqueror. 
Not  so  Urban  the  Unwise.  This  rude 
reformer  lost  Naples  by  quarrelling  with 
Queen  Joan,  whom  he  might  have  kept  loyal, 
and    with    Charles    of    Durazzo,    whom    he 


"OBEDIENCES"    AND   "NATIONS"    53 

crowned.  He  permitted  Charles  to  put  the 
Queen  to  death.  That  unhappy  Joan  was 
a  Southern  anticipation  of  Mary  Stuart  in 
her  marriages,  her  alleged  crimes,  and  her 
fearful  end  (May  22,  1382).  Then  he  fell  out 
with  his  own  nominee,  whose  Constable 
besieged  him  in  Mohammedan  Nocera.  The 
Pope  suspected  his  Cardinals  of  plotting 
against  him;  he  escaped  to  Genoa,  taking 
five  of  the  Sacred  College  with  him  as  pris- 
oners, who  all  died  mysteriously.  Afterwards 
he  returned  to  Rome,  and  there  breathed  his 
last,  October  15,  13S9.  St.  Catherine,  worn 
by  austerities  and  the  Church's  tribulations, 
had  gone  before,  in  April,  1380.  Throughout, 
she  had  acted  as  Urban's  friend  and  coun- 
sellor; but  he  was  incapable  of  taking  her  ad- 
vice. A  great  Spanish  saint,  Vincent  Ferrer, 
is  conspicuous  on  the  other  side.  The  Church, 
sorely  perplexed,  fell  into  '*  obediences." 
For  Clement  VII. ,  so-called,  would  not  resign; 
the  Roman  cardinals  elected  Boniface  IX., 
and  the  Schism  gained  a  fresh  lease  of  life 
(1389-1404). 

Boniface  IX.,  like  his  predecessor  and  his 
successor,  was  a  Neapolitan.  Under  him,  says 
Pastor,  Rome  lost  the  last  remains  of  mu- 
nicipal freedom.     His   devices   to   create   a 


54      PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

revenue  were  of  the  old  and  scandalous  kind 
familiar  to  Avignon.  His  attempted  grants  in 
England  led  to  resistance;  they  provoked  the 
final  statutes  of  Provisors  and  Praemunire 
under  Richard  II.  But  it  is  significantly 
observed  by  Creighton  that  "the  clergy  did 
not  regain  the  rights  of  which  the  Pope  had 
deprived  them;  the  gain  went  to  the  Crown." 
We  shall  see  this  law  of  spoliation  enforced 
on  a  great  scale  whenever  princes  undertake, 
as  they  say,  to  defend  the  Church;  it  was 
exemplified  in  the  gradual  but  never-halting 
process  by  which  monastic  possessions  and, 
at  length,  all  spiritual  lordships,  dominions, 
and  tenures  of  whatsoever  description  were 
secularized.  Its  final  term  arrived  in  1870 
with  the  fall  of  the  Temporal  Power.  Boni- 
face, however,  was  fortunate  enough  to  re- 
constitute the  States  of  the  Church,  and  to 
hold  out  against  Ladislaus  of  Naples.  In  139-1 
Clement  VII.  passed  away.  He  had  done 
nothing  memorable  beyond  "exhausting  the 
countries  subject  to  his  obedience"  by  op- 
pressive tolls  and  taxes.  Now  the  Schism 
should  have  come  to  an  end.  But  Pedro  de 
Luna  had  himself  chosen  Pope  as  Benedict 
NTIL;  France  and  Spain  acknowledged  their 
own  man,  who,  once  elected,  would  not  be 
compelled  by  Crown  or  university  to  abdi- 


"OBEDIENCES"  AND   "NATIONS"    55 

cate.  His  tactics  were  as  brilliant  as  they 
were  evasive.  The  French  in  1398  withdrew 
their  allegiance.  Benedict  stood  a  four  years' 
siege  in  his  rock-fortress  at  Avignon,  until  he 
escaped  down  the  Rhone  in  March,  1403. 
He  won  back  France.  He  made  a  show  of 
negotiating  with  Boniface.  He  continued  his 
diplomacy  with  Innocent  VII.,  who  was 
elected  under  some  degree  of  compulsion 
from  Ladislaus,  at  that  time  (1404)  advancing 
upon  Rome.  Innocent's  troubled  pontificate 
lasted  two  years.  On  his  death  an  aged 
Venetian  became  the  Roman  Pope,  Gregory 
XIL,  and  pledged  himself  to  abdicate;  but 
like  Benedict  he  would  not  take  the  first 
step.    What  was  the  Church  to  do? 

So  far  back  as  1381  Henry  Langenstein, 
a  German  of  the  Paris  University,  had  written 
his  "Consilium  Pacis,"  advising  an  assembly 
of  the  whole  Church  to  decide  between  the 
Popes.  In  that  title  we  hear  an  echo  of 
Marsilius  the  Paduan.  Now  the  University, 
which  held  in  its  ranks  the  most  learned  men 
of  Christendom,  and  was  itself  a  standing 
Council  where  theological  questions  found 
their  answer,  was  driven  reluctantly  to 
further  this  expedient.  Nicholas  de  Cle- 
manges,  who  had  been  its  Rector,  and  Pierre 
d'Aiily,  an  expert  scholar,  both  moderate  men, 


56      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

were  for  a  while  adherents  of  Benedict.  He 
had  made  Clemanges  his  secretary,  and  in- 
stalled D'Aillyin  the  rich  and  extensive  bish- 
opric of  Cambray.  During  the  fruitless  con- 
ferences, embassies,  and  pleadings  which 
came  to  a  head  in  the  Council  of  Pisa,  these 
two  excellent  writers  and  diplomatists  played 
a  creditable  part.  But  they  could  not  per- 
suade Benedict  to  resign,  and  when  he  lost 
their  services  he  fled  to  Perpignan,  June, 
1408.  In  the  previous  August,  Gregory  XII., 
helpless  and  afraid  of  the  Neapolitan  king, 
left  Rome,  and  began  his  wanderings  over 
Italy.  Most  of  the  Cardinals  on  both  sides 
now  withdrew  their  obedience,  and,  by  an  un- 
precedented exercise  of  authority,  convoked 
a  General  Council  in  the  Ghibelline  city  of 
Pisa.  Ladislaus  did  all  in  his  power  to  pre- 
vent it  from  meeting.  But  with  France  sup- 
porting it  and  Florence  barring  the  Neapoli- 
tan's march  against  it,  this  anomalous  yet 
dignified  assembly  came  together  in  the 
stately  Duomo,  March  <25,  1409. 

Just  upon  a  century  had  elapsed  since  the 
French  Council  of  Vicnne  had  taken  place 
under  Clement  V.  In  various  respects  local, 
its  recognition  as  something  oecumenical  was 
due  to  the  Pope's  presidency  and  subsequent 
approbation.     The  meeting  at  Pisa,  congre- 


"OBEDIENCES"  AND  "NATIONS"   57 

gated  in  spite  of  protests  from  both  claimants 
(one  of  whom  in  the  Catholic  view  must  have 
been  legitimate)  and  approved  only  by  the  two 
Popes  who  derived  from  it  their  election,  re- 
mains in  history  the  unique  thing  that  it  was, 
a  revolutionary  attempt  to  heal  a  situation 
without  parallel.  Gregorovius  calls  it,  "an 
act  of  open  rebellion  against  the  Pope." 
Cardinals  on  either  side  became  accusers  and 
judges  of  the  Holy  See;  other  deputies,  who 
were  not  even  bishops  but  merely  theologians, 
shared  in  that  solemn  sentence  whereby 
Gregory  XII.  and  Benedict  XIII.  were 
simultaneously  deposed.  Gerson,  a  devout- 
minded  French  canonist,  who  may  be  con- 
sidered the  first  Gallican  strictly  so-called, 
put  forward  his  doctrine,  on  which  Pisa 
founded  itself,  that  the  Church  could  exist 
without  a  Pope,  and  that  the  Pope  was 
subject  to  a  General  Council.  "This  was 
the  first  real  step,"  concludes  Gregorovius, 
"towards  the  deliverance  of  the  world  from 
the  Papal  hierarchy;  it  was  already  the 
Reformation." 

On  June  5,  1409,  the  above  memorable 
decree  was  voted;  twelve  days  later  the 
Cardinals,  not  without  previous  licence  from 
the  Council,  elected  a  Greek  of  Candia — the 
Franciscan  friar  and  archbishop   of  Milan, 


58      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Filargi — to  that  which  they  deemed  the 
vacant  See  of  Rome.  Alexander  V.  was  a 
good  friar,  but  made  confusion  worse  con- 
founded by  accepting  a  debated  dignity. 
Three  Popes  astonished  and  saddened  the 
Catholic  world.  In  a  few  months  Alexander 
was  gone;  and  Baldassarre  Cossa,  the  Car- 
dinal of  Bologna,  who  had  been  the  soul  of  the 
Pisan  Council,  took  his  place.  John  XXIII. , 
last  of  that  name,  is  a  portent  in  the  succession 
to  which  he  effected  a  forcible  entrance.  Of 
Neapolitan  descent,  and  of  a  naval  family,  the 
legend  affirms  that  in  his  youth  he  had  been  a 
corsair.  Like  so  many  able  and  disedifying 
ecclesiastics,  Cossa  took  to  the  Church  simply 
as  to  the  profession  most  lucrative  in  honours 
and  emoluments  then  open  to  genius.  He 
studied  law  at  Bologna,  knew  little  of  theol- 
ogy, did  not  pretend  to  be  a  saint,  but  was  a 
valiant  fighting  man,  who  proved  himself 
equal  to  the  stern  duties  of  Cardinal  Legate 
when  he  had  in  hand  the  second  Papal  city, 
or  was  keeping  back  Ladislaus  from  Pisa. 

To  choose  a  pontiff  "altogether  null  and 
inept  in  things  spiritual"  has  been  called  a 
grotesque  incongruity  on  the  part  of  Cardinals 
lately  vociferating  the  need  of  reform.  But 
John  was  acknowledged  by  all  the  States 
which    had    owned    Alexander    V.      Several 


"OBEDIENCES"  AND   "NATIONS"    59 

months  after  his  election  he  entered  Rome 
(April,  1411)  with  his  French  ally,  Louis  of 
Anjou,  at  his  side,  the  latter  being  now  this 
Pope's  candidate  for  Naples,  and  bent  on  its 
conquest.  But  though  Louis  gained  the  vic- 
tory of  Rocca  Secca,  it  profited  him  nothing. 
Ladislaus  kept  his  crown;  John  made  peace 
with  him.  Gregory  XII.,  at  Rimini,  found  a 
champion  in  the  one  honourable  and  thor- 
oughly Christian  prince  of  this  decadent  age, 
Carlo  Alalatesta.  And  now,  at  length,  a  clear 
field  was  discovered  on  which  to  end  the 
Schism.  On  July  21,  1411,  Sigismund  of 
Hungary,  brother  to  the  deposed  Wenccslaus, 
became  by  the  electors'  unanimous  vote  King 
of  the  Romans.  He  allowed,  and  the  Empire 
allowed  with  him,  John's  ostensible  claim  to 
the  Papacy.  But  he  determined  that  Chris- 
tendom should  meet  in  council;  he  fixed  on 
the  city  of  Constance;  and  John,  who  foresaw 
what  would  happen  to  such  a  pontiff  as  him- 
self when  brought  to  judgment,  gave  his  un- 
willing adhesion. 

This  Council  of  Constance,  which  opened 
on  November  5,  1414,  was  not  only  the  largest 
in  point  of  attendance,  lay  and  ecclesiastical, 
but  also  the  most  imposing  ever  held.  As 
a  great  representative  assembly,  it  exhibits 
the  Church  and  State  of  the  Middle  Ages 


CO      PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

in  a  magnificent  array  of  pomp  and  power. 
It  was  the  Parliament  of  the  West,  dealing 
with  rival  Popes,  defining  dogma,  putting 
down  heresies,  contemplating  reform  in  head 
and  members  of  the  religious  institution  which 
it  ruled  over  during  three  eventful  years. 
Constance  became  the  capital  city  of  Eu- 
rope. It  was  a  fair,  a  camp,  a  forum  of  de- 
bate, diversified  with  ceremonial  as  august 
as  Roman  and  mediaeval  tradition  could 
prescribe.  One  hundred  thousand  persons 
thronged  into  the  little  town  and  neighbour- 
hood. They  were  well-managed,  with  excel- 
lent order  in  most  things.  Civilization  had 
made  great  strides  when  the  European  na- 
tions could  thus  meet  peaceably  and  decorum 
be  so  finely  observed. 

The  Council  went  through  dramatic  vicissi- 
tudes. It  brought  in  from  Paris  University 
the  method  of  voting  by  nations — in  this 
instance  the  German,  French,  English,  and 
Italian,  to  which  Aragon  was  added  later 
• — thereby  depriving  John  XXIII.  of  his 
chief  support,  the  Roman  and  other  prelates 
who  would  have  formed  an  hierarchical 
majority.  John  fled  from  Constance  on 
March  L20,  141.5.  Rut  Sigismund  held  firm. 
The  Council  would  not  break  up.  Ten  days 
elapsed,  and  Cardinal  Zabarella  proclaimed 


"OBEDIENCES"  AND   "NATIONS"    61 

the  famous  decree  of  the  Fourth  Session, 
which  declared  the  Council  superior  to  the 
Pope.  Although  D'Ailly  was  not  present,  we 
must  attribute  this  revolutionary  Gallican 
dogma  to  him  and  his  French  associates,  Ger- 
son  and  Filastre.  The  Cardinals,  recruited 
from  all  three  "obediences,"  protested  in  ac- 
cord with  tradition  that  apart  from  the  Ro- 
man Church  a  Council  had  no  authority. 
Frederick  of  Austria,  hitherto  John's  friend, 
submitted  under  compulsion  to  Sigismund. 
John  himself,  whose  conduct  betrayed  a 
broken  spirit,  and  who  had  promised  to  abdi- 
cate, was  now  charged  with  crimes  of  every 
colour,  and  on  May  29,  1415,  was  deposed. 
The  long  indictment,  founded  to  some  extent 
on  hearsay,  he  would  neither  read  nor  answer. 
We  may  believe  that  much  of  it  is  untrue.  On 
July  4,  1415,  Gregory  XII.,  by  his  proctor, 
Malatesta,  handed  in  his  own  resignation  after 
constituting  the  Council  in  a  formal  Bull. 
This,  on  Roman  principles,  gave  the  Fathers 
a  status  which  they  had  not  possessed  until 
then.  At  last  the  Holy  See  was  manifestly 
vacant;  for  no  one  heeded  Benedict  XIII.  at 
Periiscola,  though  his  actual  deprivation  did 
not  take  place  until  July  26,  1417. 

At     Constance,     therefore,     the     Gallican 
movement   won;    and  by   the  decree   "Fre- 


62      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

quens,"  it  was  now  resolved  that  from  hence- 
forth Councils  to  be  called  every  five  years 
should  govern  the  Church.  It  was  an  innova- 
tion without  precedent  in  East  or  West.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  movement  destined  to  be 
much  more  formidable,  beginning  in  England 
with  Wy  cliff  e,  and  then  alive  in  Bohemia,  was 
the  subject  of  stern  repression.  Wycliffe 
had  "attacked  in  unmeasured  terms  the 
foundations  of  the  ecclesiastical  system," 
as  Creighton  allows;  and  "it  was  felt  that 
he  threatened  the  existence  of  the  Church, 
and  even  of  civil  society."  His  "Lollards" 
were  associated  in  popular  opinion,  but  still 
more  in  the  eyes  of  authority,  with  all  the 
disorders  which  vexed  England,  leading  to 
Archbishop  Sudbury's  murder,  and  menacing 
rank,  property,  the  Crown  itself.  Their 
petition  to  Parliament  in  1395  denounced 
the  Mass,  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  prayers 
for  the  dead,  auricular  confession,  monastic 
vows.  Rome  had  gone  astray,  England, 
they  said,  had  followed  her  example.  In 
1397  Archbishop  Arundel  condemned  eight- 
een propositions  of  Wycliffe.  In  1401,  on 
petition  from  the  clergy.  Parliament  enacted 
the  clause,  "de  heretico  comburendo,"  and 
William  Sautre  was  burnt  as  a  heretic.  The 
nation    pronounced    against   Lollardy.      Rut 


"OBEDIENCES"  AND   "NATIONS"    63 

it  had  already  migrated  to  Bohemia,  where 
the  flourishing  University  of  Prague  became 
its  headquarters.  A  doctrine  which  meant 
nothing  less  than  subversion  of  dogma, 
discipline,  and  authority,  as  hitherto  recog- 
nized by  Catholic  Church  and  Christian 
State,  was  not  likely  to  be  suffered  at  Con- 
stance. All  the  world  knows  under  what 
affecting,  as  well  as  much-debated,  circum- 
stances John  Hus  and  Jerome  of  Prague 
met  their  fiery  doom,  Hus  on  July  6,  1415, 
Jerome  on  May  30,  1416.  According  to  the 
judicial  procedure  which  then  prevailed, 
their  trial  was  fair  and  their  sentence  merited. 
Gregory  XII.  died  in  October,  1417.  On 
St.  Martin's  Day,  November  11,  the  Car- 
dinals and  their  appointed  associates  elected 
Oddo  Colonna,  belonging  to  the  illustrious 
and  turbulent  Roman  house  which  had  with- 
stood so  many  Popes  and  insulted  Boniface 
VIII.  at  Anagni.  The  new  Pontiff,  Martin 
V.,  was  admirable  in  character  and  blameless 
in  conduct.  He  approved  now  of  what  had 
been  done  "conciliariter,"  that  is  to  say,  in 
obedience  to  Catholic  principles,  by  this 
long-continued  assembly,  and,  dissolving  it 
on  April  22,  1418,  put  an  end  to  the  Great 
Schism,  though  Benedict's  last  followers  held 
out  until  1429. 


CHAPTER  II 

from  constance  to  the  sack  of  rome 
(1417-1527.  savonarola,  on  "the 
church's  downfall") 

When  Martin  V.  confirmed  the  rules  of  the 
Roman  Chancery,  which  he  did  without  de- 
lay, his  action  put  off  all  serious  amendment 
of  abuses  until  another  Council,  that  of 
Trent,  utterly  opposed  in  spirit  to  Constance, 
undertook  the  task,  by  which  time,  in  Biblical 
language,  Israel  had  been  rent  from  Judah. 
When  the  new  Pope  set  out  for  Florence 
and  Rome,  he  was  moving  towards  a  world 
into  which  German  ideas  could  not  penetrate, 
and  where  German  grievances  would  be 
unheeded.  Coming  up  from  South  and  East, 
the  mighty  wave  of  Renaissance  was  to  lift 
the  Church  and  carry  the  century  forward 
upon  its  bosom,  in  brilliant  sunshine.  Italy, 
.said  Filclfo,  was  to  present  the  spectacle  of 
a  second  Magna  Gra?cia,  in  art  and  letters 
unrivalled  by  the  ''Barbarians"  north  of  Ihc 
Alps;  while  Rome,  for  the  first  and  last 
G4 


TO  THE  SACK  OF  ROME  65 

time,  appeared  as  a  modern  Athens,  the 
capital  of  learning  and  of  civilization  at  its 
highest  point  since  the  age  of  the  Antonines; 
in  general  culture  supreme.  "The  eminence 
of  the  Papacy  consisted  at  that  time,"  says 
F.  X.  Kraus,  "in  its  leadership  of  Europe 
in  the  province  of  art."  But  the  same  writer 
grants  elsewhere  that,  when  Medicean  Rome 
drew  admiration  to  its  marvels,  "the  re- 
ligious and  moral  point  of  view  was  ignored 
in  this  domain  of  worldly  aims  and  ideas." 
From  such  a  mingled  Renaissance  to  the 
Sack  of  Rome  in  1527,  the  stages  of  righteous 
tragedy,  purifying  as  by  fire  the  rebellious 
and  sinful  people  with  their  rulers,  may  be 
plainly  followed,  as  in  some  prophecy  of  the 
Old  Testament.  It  is  foreshadowed  by 
Savonarola's  canzone  of  1475  on  "The 
Church's  Downfall." 

There  is  another  general  tendency  worth 
observing.  Mediaeval  Europe  had  cherished 
freedom.  Its  feudal  services,  chartered  privi- 
leges, popular  franchises,  Parliaments  and 
Diets,  had  restrained  the  sovereign  power. 
Not  even  the  Holy  See  could  escape  censure 
and  sometimes  vehement  opposition  from 
representative  bodies.  All  this  was  rapidly 
changing.     The  quarrels  of  Armagnacs  and 


6G      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Burgundians,  the  English  invasion  and  loss 
of  France,  did  but  seem  to  justify  Louis  XI. 
in  exercising  absolute  rule.  The  Wars  of 
the  Roses  destroyed  an  old  aristocracy  to 
make  room  for  a  new  one,  while  giving  to  the 
Tudors  a  dominion  the  alternative  of  which 
was  anarchy.  Among  Italians  this  period 
is  the  "Age  of  the  Tyrants" — men  like 
Francesco  Sforza,  who  rose  to  be  Duke  of 
Milan;  like  the  Malatesta  at  Rimini,  the 
Baglioni  at  Perugia,  the  Estensian  princes 
of  Ferrara,  the  Bentivogli  at  Bologna;  and 
pre-eminent  in  all  the  arts,  villanies,  and 
accomplishments  needful  for  so  perilous  a 
task,  the  Medici,  who  did  not  yet  call  them- 
selves Lords  of  Florence,  but  with  Augustan 
dexterity  ruled  as  if  over  free  citizens.  From 
the  Assembly  of  Pisa,  in  1409,  till  the  last 
vestiges  of  the  Schism  at  Basle  melted  away 
in  1449,  has  also  been  termed  the  "Age  of 
the  Councils."  But  its  end  was  defeat, 
inflicted  on  the  parliamentary  or  constitu- 
tional idea,  which  Gerson  would  have  substi- 
tuted for  the  Papal  Monarchy.  Pisa,  Con- 
stance, Basle  left  the  Pope  unlimited  sway 
among  the  world-powers  which  were  not  less 
ben 'I  on  striking  down  opposition.  Not  until 
the  Puritans  rallied  to  a  conception  which 


TO  THE   SACK  OF  ROME  67 

won  its  triumph  at  Naseby  in  1645,  did  it 
seem  possible  to  overthrow  the  Roman, 
without  enhancing  the  Royal  supremacy. 

But  Martin  V.  also  began,  however  cau- 
tiously, a  counter-movement  to  the  classic 
Republican  spirit,  which  Rienzi  had  stirred 
up  and  which  survived  him.  The  Popes 
now  aimed  steadily  at  becoming  masters 
in  their  own  capital;  and  they  succeeded. 
A  still  more  difficult  but  imperative  duty, 
if  they  were  to  feel  themselves  independent, 
was  the  reduction  of  local  tyrants  under  their 
yoke — or  a  real,  and  not  merely  nominal, 
grasp  of  the  Papal  States.  In  this  under- 
taking it  was  likewise  their  fortune  to  prosper, 
and  by  the  strangest  means.  They  became 
effective  temporal  sovereigns  at  the  very 
moment  when  their  spiritual  jurisdiction 
was  cast  aside  by  one-half  of  Christendom, 
exactly  the  reverse  of  that  which  was  to  hap- 
pen in  1870.  All  these  converging  events 
meet  in  the  same  decisive  era.  When  Clem- 
ent VII.  came  back  to  Rome  in  1528,  and 
crowned  Charles  V.  at  Bologna,  the  year  fol- 
lowing, two  series  of  opposed  developments 
in  history  were  fixed  and  certain.  The  Prot- 
estant Reformation  was  to  run  its  course; 
the  Popes  were  to  become  unchecked  sover- 


68      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

eigns  of  Rome — which  no  enemy  would 
capture,  and  only  one  for  an  instant  approach, 
during  the  two  hundred  and  sixty  years  which 
preceded  the  opening  of  States  General  at 
Versailles,  May  4,  1789. 

In  1419,  Rome  and  Benevento  were  held 
by  Joan  II.,  Queen  of  Naples.  Bologna 
had  declared  itself  a  free  Republic.  By 
granting  the  Queen  investiture  and  making 
terms  with  Braccio,  then  the  rival  brigand 
to  Sforza  of  Attendolo,  Pope  Martin  V. 
was  enabled  to  take  possession  of  the  Eter- 
nal City,  "  devastated  by  pestilence,  famine, 
sword,  and  revolt,"  on  September  30,  1420. 
He  found  ruins  on  every  side,  a  scanty 
population,  the  Vatican  gardens  waste,  and 
the  walls  about  St.  Peter's  broken  down. 
Martin  restored  St.  John  Lateran  as  well 
as  other  churches;  built  for  himself  a  mod- 
est palace  on  the  Quirinal;  and  inaugu- 
rated, by  his  patronage  of  Gentile  and  Ma- 
saccio,  the  decorative  works  which  were 
to  transform  this  "city  of  cowherds"  into 
the  most  beautiful  of  European  capitals. 
He  left  the  municipal  liberties  of  Rome 
untouched.  But  he  put  down  brigandage; 
recovered  Perugia  in  1424  and  Bologna  in 
1429,    and   was   a   model   Pope,    save   only 


TO  THE  SACK  OF  ROME  69 

that  he  greatly  aggrandized  the  house  of 
Colonna.  Papal  families  were  now  to  play 
their  splendid,  but  too  often  disastrous  and 
even  criminal  part,  on  the  Roman  stage, 
in  presence  of  a  scandalized  world.  It  has 
been  fairly  argued  that  by  promoting  his 
kinsfolk  the  Pontiff  made  sure  of  ministers 
on  whom  he  could  rely,  and  that  nepotism 
helped  him  to  keep  in  check  the  Roman 
Patricians,  most  insolent  and  lawless  of 
their  kind.  The  story,  however,  may  be 
allowed  to  preach  its  own  moral,  both  good 
and  bad.  There  was  little  need  to  exalt 
the  Colonna,  whose  cup  of  wickedness  had 
not  yet  been  filled  to  the  brim. 

Reluctantly  enough,  Martin  V.,  who  had 
reconciled  Aragon  and  so  cleared  away  the 
last  remnants  of  schism,  allowed  the  promised 
Council  to  meet  at  Basle.  Cardinal  Cesarini, 
learned  and  high-minded,  was  to  preside  over 
its  discussions.  Eugenius  IV.  succeeded 
Martin,  being  a  Venetian,  a  friar  of  St. 
Francis,  a  strict  and  saintly  man,  but  no 
politician.  The  Council  opened  July  23, 
1-131.  In  December,  Eugenius  dissolved  it. 
But  this  democratic  meeting,  where  bishops 
found  themselves  jostled,  says  /Eneas  Sylvius, 
by  cooks  and  stable-boys,  renewed  the  de- 


70      PAPACY  AXD   MODERN  TIMES 

crees  of  Constance,  summoned  and  finally 
deposed  the  Pope,  though  undoubtedly  legit- 
imate, usurped  his  government  in  Avignon, 
laid  taxes  on  the  Church  at  large,  and  may 
be  called  in  ecclesiastical  annals  the  Long 
Parliament,  for  it  went  on  during  eighteen 
years,  till  1449.  Recognized  for  a  while 
by  the  secular  powers,  alternately  approved 
and  condemned  by  Eugenius,  it  made  the 
"compacts"  which  brought  peace  to  Bo- 
hemia, where  Ziska  and  his  Taborites  waged 
a  sanguinary  contest. 

Sigismund,  like  the  Pope,  was  now  with 
the  Council  and  now  against  it.  But  when 
Amadeus  of  Savoy  had  been  elected  on  these 
new  and  revolutionary  principles  at  Basle 
as  Felix  V.,  he  proved  to  be  the  last  of  the 
Antipopes.  Eugenius,  headstrong  but  honest, 
was  driven  from  Rome  in  1434,  and  took 
refuge  in  Florence.  By  degrees  the  old 
Catholic  idea  to  which,  under  extreme 
difficulties,  he  remained  faithful,  won  back 
from  the  tumults  and  ineptitudes  of  Basle 
moderate  men  like  Cesarini,  Cusa,  and  .-Eneas 
Sylvius.  The  Pope  at  Ferrara  and  Florence 
received  from  the  Creek  Emperor,  now 
desperately  seeking  help  against  the  Turks, 
an  enforced  homage.     For  one  moment  the 


TO  THE  SACK  OF  ROME  71 

Churches  of  East  and  West  joined  in  the 
same  profession  of  faith.  But  even  at  this, 
their  hour  of  doom,  the  Greek  people  would 
not  accept  the  Union.  There  was  no  hope 
of  saving  Constantinople  after  the  fatal 
day  of  Varna  (1444)  in  which  Cesarini  fell, 
and  the  Christian  host  was  cut  to  pieces. 
Eugenius  went  back  to  Rome  and  died 
there.  Few  pontiffs  had  undergone  greater 
humiliations;  but  he  was  the  last  whom 
Roman  violence  compelled  to  flee  from  the 
Eternal  City  until  Pius  IX.  quitted  it  in 
1848.  And  the  Long  Parliament  at  Basle 
did  not  succeed  in  its  endeavour  to  substitute 
for  the  Pope  an  oligarchy  or  a  democracy, 
as  surpeme  over  the  Church. 

From  henceforth  the  Conciliar  movement 
was  dead.  Reform,  still  desired  by  Germans, 
pursued  later  on  with  apostolic  zeal  by 
Cardinal  Cusa  in  his  thrice-famous  Visitation 
(1451),  did  not  much  trouble  the  conscience 
of  Italy,  now  absorbed  in  its  vision  of  the 
ancient  classic  world.  Florence,  under  its 
Medicean  rulers,  became  a  centre  of  Greek 
studies,  of  art  grandly  imagined,  of  litera- 
ture, both  Latin  and  Tuscan,  as  well  as  of 
a  Paganism  slightly  or  not  at  all  disguised. 
The    Papacy    itself,    which    had    employed 


72      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Humanist  scholars,  but  without  enthusiasm, 
in  the  clays  of  Martin  and  Eugenius,  took 
on  the  air  of  a  liberal  university  when 
Nicholas  V.  was  elected.  Nicholas  reigned 
only  eight  years  (1447-1455).  But  he 
wrought  wonders  in  that  brief  space.  He 
planned  and  partly  executed  the  design  of 
laying  out  Rome  as  an  architectural  whole. 
He  began  the  Vatican  palace,  did  much  to 
restore  St.  Peter's,  and  gave  the  Leonine  City 
its  present  shape.  He  was  resolved  to 
identify  the  Christian  religion  with  art  and 
learning.  By  the  execution  of  Porcaro  in 
1452  he  put  an  end  to  all  hopes  of  a  Roman 
Republic.  During  the  next  seventy  years 
Rome,  politically  no  longer  free,  was  to  lead 
Europe  in  the  paths  of  the  Renaissance, 
to  be  "the  true  seat  and  home  of  all  Latin 
culture,"  or  as  Erasmus  described  it,  "the 
common  country  of  learned  men."  Medi- 
aeval and  modern  thought  came  together; 
but  in  the  first  raptures  which  followed  on 
the  discovery  of  noble  antique  art,  and  when 
scholasticism  had  decayed  into  pedantry 
or  barbarism,  more  than  a  little  wrong  was 
done  to  the  earlier  Middle  Age.  Southern 
nations  were  instinctively  breaking  away 
from   the   Teutons,   English,   and    Scandina- 


TO  THE  SACK  OF  ROME  73 

vians,  by  their  preference  of  the  Latin  civil- 
ization before  the  less  brilliant  but  more 
profound,  if  still  narrow,  conceptions  which 
were  afterwards  to  be  called  Puritan.  During 
the  whole  period  between  Nicholas  V.  and 
the  Council  of  Trent,  monastic  ideals  under- 
went an  eclipse. 

But  in  helping  to  form  one  great  synthesis 
where  ail  the  perfect  achievements  of  human- 
ity might  blend  with  religion  and  give  it 
glory,  the  Popes  were  obeying  right  reason. 
As  in  the  year  800  Pope  Leo  III.  created 
a  new  Roman  Empire  on  the  ruins  of  the 
old,  thereby  offering  to  Franks  and  Teutons 
a  principle  of  unity  which  served  its  pur- 
pose until  the  tribes  of  the  Barbarians  were 
ripening  into  nations,  so  during  the  half 
century  between  Nicholas  V.  and  Leo  X., 
they  did  a  bolder  thing — they  accepted  the 
Greek  idea  of  culture.  This,  when  we  reflect 
on  the  peculiar  cast  of  tradition  and  policy 
at  Rome,  was  infinitely  more  daring  than  to 
make  of  Charlemagne  a  Western  Ccesar. 
For  Christianity  and  civilization  are  each 
ideal  wholes,  self-centred  and  self-sustained. 
Accordingly,  the  Middle  Ages  end  when  the 
Renaissance  begins.  That  Higher  Synthesis 
of  Rome  and  Athens  could  not  be  effected 


74      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

without  powers  of  mind,  without  moral 
earnestness  greatly  enhanced  beyond  any 
to  which  the  fifteenth  century  might  lay 
claim.  It  was  from  many  points  of  view  a 
decadent  era.  Its  attempts  at  philosophy 
were  feeble.  Cardinal  Cusa  was  but  a  link 
between  the  mystic  reveries  of  Tauler,  the 
Dominican,  and  later  German  theosophies, 
such  as  Jacob  Behmen's;  he  did  not  possess 
the  true  notion  of  history.  In  like  manner 
at  Florence  Marsilius  Ficinus  translated 
Plato  and  dreamt  that  he  was  reviving 
Platonism;  but  he  sacrificed  reason  to 
Alexandrian  dreams.  The  princes  of  Italy 
treated  literature  mainly  as  an  adornment  of 
their  courts,  and  art  as  the  splendid  frame- 
work of  their  shows,  their  intrigues,  and 
their  ambitions. 

To  the  Popes  we  may  ascribe,  as  a  dynasty, 
loftier  aims.  When  at  command  of  Julius  II., 
in  1508,  Raffaelle  began  to  fresco  the  walls 
of  the  Camera  della  Segnatura,  he  gave, 
under  the  Vatican  roof,  an  expression  which 
remains  to  this  day  of  the  great  reconciling 
thought,  in  itself  justified,  that  antiquity 
has  furnished  a  fit  prelude  to  the  Christian 
Faith  by  its  poets,  philosophers,  men  of 
science,   and   supreme  artists.     The   Sistine 


TO  THE  SACK  OF  ROME  75 

Chapel  repeats  and  enforces  the  lesson. 
Dating  from  Sixtus  IV.  (1473),  under  whom 
its  walls  were  painted  by  Florentine  and 
Umbrian  pencils — by  Botticelli,  Ghirlandajo, 
Perugino,  and  others — it  became  the  scene 
of  Michael  Angelo's  triumph  in  design,  in 
teaching,  in  magnificent  harmonies  of  thought 
as  of  colour,  between  1508  and  1512.  Three 
dispensations  are  illustrated  within  this  Papal 
precinct — the  Old  Testament  leading  up 
to  the  New,  and  the  Sibyls,  as  Divine  mes- 
sengers among  the  heathen,  confronting 
the  prophets  of  Israel.  Facing  the  unknown 
future  rises  before  us  that  tremendous 
symbolic  picture  of  the  Last  Judgment 
(painted  1534-41),  which  in  its  dreadful 
outlines  was  to  be  accomplished  on  Church 
and  State  as  the  years  went  forward.  But 
who  can  misconstrue  the  announcement  thus 
perpetuated  of  a  superhuman  idea,  in  which 
Rome  signifies  unity,  and  all  the  ways  of 
progress  meet  at  its  Golden  Milestone? 

As  eight  hundred  years  earlier  the  con- 
quests of  Mohammed's  lieutenants  had  given 
to  (  atholic  Rome  a  victory  over  Syrian  and 
Egyptian  sectaries,  so  now  by  the  destruction 
of  the  Greek  Empire  a  second  Mohammed 
turned    the    course    of    civilized    mankind 


76     PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

definitely  westward.  Constantinople  fell  in 
1453,  suddenly,  not  without  heroism.  Di- 
vided Europe  had  surrendered  the  Queen 
City  to  be  trampled  on  by  Turkish  hordes. 
In  1204  the  filibustering  expedition  known 
as  the  Fourth  Crusade,  disobeying  Innocent 
III.,  had  captured  New  Rome,  hitherto  in- 
violate. A  succession  of  Latin  Emperors 
till  1261;  feudal  chiefs  whom  their  subjects 
detested;  the  commerce  and  rivalries  which 
were  exercised  by  Venetians  and  Genoese; 
the  great  robber-bands  from  Spain,  celebrated 
as  the  Catalan  Company — all  these  elements 
combined  to  weaken  that  first  line  of  Chris- 
tian defence.  The  Popes  were  willing  to  aid 
Byzantium  if  it  would  grant  precedence 
to  the  Vatican.  But  it  never  would,  and 
the  disunion  of  the  Churches  opened  a  breach 
in  the  walls  of  Valens  through  which  Mo- 
hammed II.  entered.  He  made  of  Turkey  a 
European  State.  He  became  suzerain  over 
Greek  Christians  and  appointed  their  Patri- 
arch, lie  meditated  on  the  exploits  of  Alex- 
ander; he  was  resolved  to  conquer  the  whole 
West;  and  by  his  subjugation  of  Servia  and 
the  Morea,  by  his  raid  on  Otranto,  Ik1  proved 
thai  it  could  be  promisingly  attempted. 
He  died  in  1481. 


TO  THE   SACK   OF  ROME  77 

Meanwhile,  the  Papal  throne  had  been 
occupied  by  a  fiery  Spaniard,  Calixtus  III. 
(145.5-1458);  a  man  of  letters,  Pius  II. 
(1158-1464);  a  Venetian  dilettante,  Paul  II. 
(1464-1471) ;  and  a  Franciscan  friar  of  Genoa, 
Sixtus  IV.  (1471-1484),  all  of  whom  professed 
that  the  Crusade  against  Islam  was  their 
dearest  concern.  Europe  would  not  be  con- 
vinced. The  Spaniard,  whose  name  was 
Borgia,  sent  funds  and  preachers  to  Hunyadi, 
sent  him  the  legate  Carvajal,  the  astonishing 
friar,  John  Capistrano;  and  thus  enabled 
the  Magyar  hero  to  relieve  Belgrade  (July, 
1456),  though  he  died  of  the  plague  a  month 
later.  The  Turks  lost  fifty  thousand  men; 
but  they  annexed  Servia,  Bosnia,  Herzego- 
vina. Pius  II.,  who  had  been  /Eneas  Sylvius, 
journalist,  adventurer,  statesman,  cardinal, 
and  Pope,  interesting  as  a  modern  figure  and 
forerunner  of  Erasmus,  displayed  the  rare 
quality  of  a  genius  that  grew  with  circum- 
stances. He  was  enthusiastic  for  the  Holy 
War;  but  his  early  escapades,  the  frequent 
diversion  of  crusading  taxes  to  purposes 
neither  good  nor  lawful,  and  the  criminal 
adherence  of  Venice  to  Mohammed's  policy, 
defeated  Pius,  who  showed  in  his  travels 
to  Mantua  and  his  death- journey  to  Ancona 


78      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

qualities  which  demand  our  admiration. 
Paul  II.,  a  fine  character,  misunderstood  by 
the  Italian  Courts,  which  never  dreamt  that 
a  Pope  could  be  an  honourable  man,  did  his 
utmost  to  encourage  Scanderbeg,  otherwise 
George  of  Albania,  who  for  ten  years  defended 
Illyria,  foiled  the  Turk,  and  stood  between 
Venice  and  Mohammed.  George  died  in 
1467.  Negropont  (Eubcea)  was  lost  in  1470. 
But  the  Sultan's  decease  gave  to  the  Knights 
of  St.  John  at  Rhodes  a  breathing-space 
of  forty  years  (besieged  1480;  surrendered 
1522). 

Section  II 

SECULAR   POMP   AND    SPIRITUAL   DECAY 

(1471-1527) 

We  come  now  to  an  outwardly  brilliant  but 
in  itself  deplorable  episode  of  Vatican  history 
which,  though  in  some  sense  relieved  by 
the  feats  and  glories  of  Julius  II.,  fills  the 
period  commencing  with  Sixtus  IV.  (1471), 
and  cannot  be  held  to  have  terminated  before 
the  double  Sack  of  Rome  (May-September, 
1527).  These  sixty  years  witnessed  a  degra- 
dation of  the  Papacy  into  a  mere  Italian 
princedom,  while  its  sacred  prerogatives  were 


POMP  AND  DECAY  79 

employed  as  "reasons  of  State,"  with  scandal 
to  present  and  after  ages.  Yet  we  must  be 
on  our  guard,  as  De  Quincey  points  out 
when  dealing  with  Cicero  and  his  times, 
against  "that  masquerade  of  misrepresenta- 
tion which  invariably  accompanied  the  polit- 
ical eloquence  of  Rome."  Calumny  more 
atrocious  than  was  practised  by  pamphlet- 
eers, ambassadors,  diarists,  biographers,  and 
literary  men  at  large,  during  the  Humanist 
Era,  it  is  impossible  to  imagine.  For  a  long 
while  it  was  taken  as  true,  and  especially 
since  religious  opinions  were  affected  by  it. 
Now  we  understand  that  no  statement,  even 
if  it  defames  the  Borgias,  can  be  admitted 
without  scrutiny,  or  when  wanting  in  con- 
firmation. Monstrous  caricatures,  designed 
for  the  ends  of  faction,  ought  not  to  be  looked 
upon  as  faithful  portraits. 

Moreover,  it  should  be  remembered,  to  the 
credit  of  Vatican  diplomacy,  that  the  Popes 
aimed  at  Italian  independence  of  the  foreigner, 
and  that  they  were  bound  to  make  of  the 
Papal  States  a  power  which  could  maintain 
itself  erect  between  Naples  and  Milan  on  one 
side,  Florence  and  Venice  on  the  other.  Their 
policy  changed  with  bewildering  suddenness; 
but  its  motive  was  generally  apparent  and, 


80      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

though  sadly  too  often  self-regarding,  it  led 
at  a  critical  moment  to  the  end  they  had  in 
view.  Thanks  to  their  persistent  efforts, 
Rome  was  not  absorbed  in  the  French  or  the 
Spanish  Empire.  For  nearly  three  centuries 
it  remained  the  one  free  spot  in  Southern 
Europe,  as  Holland  became  the  free  meeting- 
place  of  the  Protestant  North. 

From  1471,  therefore,  down  to  1527,  is  a 
chapter  of  Roman  and  Papal  story  which 
bears  the  most  curious  resemblance  to  that 
of  the  Caesars  who  followed  Augustus  and 
preceded  Trajan.  It  finds  in  Guicciardini 
some  depraved  imitation  of  Tacitus;  in  the 
diaries  of  Infessura  scandals  which  would 
have  pleased  Suetonius  by  their  enormity 
— perhaps  of  lying  as  well  as  of  delineation 
■ — and  in  Machiavelli  such  perverted  wisdom 
mingled  with  sublimer  traits  as  to  remind  us 
of  Seneca,  Nero's  panegyrist  and  victim.  Let 
us  not  forget,  however,  that  genius  of  the 
highest  rank  has  immortalized  a  period 
abounding  in  vital  energy  no  less  than  in 
crime.  Italy  brought  forth  not  only  politi- 
cians who  gave  to  Europe  shrewd  and  wicked 
counsels,  but  poets,  painters,  sculptors,  ora- 
tors, explorers,  among  whom  we  may  range 
from   Ariosto,   Leonardo   da  Vinci,   Michael 


POMP  AND  DECAY  81 

Angelo,  Titian,  Raffaelle,  to  Columbus  and 
Amerigo  Vespucci.  Italian  greatness,  on 
every  line  except  that  of  military  skill,  is 
incontestable.  It  was  hereafter  to  equal  in 
the  Catholic  Reformation  the  mighty  works 
which  it  did  under  the  impulse  of  revived  an- 
tiquity. Nothing  to  compare  with  Italian  art 
has  been  achieved  since  Michael  Angelo's  de- 
cline. No  modern  cities — we  will  doubtfully 
except  Paris — have  made  on  the  world  such 
a  deep  impression  of  beauty,  life,  and  power 
as  Venice,  Florence,  Rome.  The  Renais- 
sance triumphed  in  these  marble  palaces  and 
squares,  on  the  shores  of  Tiber  and  Arno, 
amid  the  gleaming  lagoons,  as  never  since  or 
before.  But  it  was  a  time  of  moral  anarchy, 
which  iEgidius  of  Viterbo  sums  up  in  the 
strong  words,  "Aurum,  vis,  Venus  imperita- 
bat."  Violent  desire,  violent  achievement 
mark  that  age. 

Alonzo  Borgia,  who  became  Calixtus  III., 
was  born  in  1378,  the  year  of  the  Schism. 
A  Catalan  by  descent,  he  sided  with  Bene- 
dict XIII.,  but  afterwards  acknowledged  Pope 
Martin.  His  services  to  the  King  of  Aragon 
in  governing  Naples  gave  him  dignity,  and 
with  his  election  Spanish  vigour  but  Spanish 
truculence    also    ruled    the    Sacred    College. 


82      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

He  created  in  1456  two  of  his  nephews 
Cardinals,  giving  them  his  family  name — 
Rodrigo,  afterwards  Alexander  VI.  (born 
1431),  a  youth  of  twenty-five;  and  Luis 
Juan,  still  younger.  He  made  Pedro  Luis, 
who  was  not  in  orders,  Captain-General  of 
the  Church,  Governor  of  St.  Peter's  patri- 
mony, the  district  adjoining  Rome,  and 
Prefect  of  the  City.  Rodrigo  was  appointed 
legate  (that  is,  Papal  resident)  in  Ancona 
and  Bologna;  he  then  appeared  as  Vice- 
Chancellor,  second  in  authority  to  the  Pope; 
and  during  the  next  forty-seven  years  he  is  a 
leading  man  in  the  Curia  and  above  it. 
Calixtus  claimed  the  kingdom  of  Naples, 
chiefly  that  he  might  bestow  on  Pedro  Luis 
the  principalities  of  Terracina  and  Beneven- 
tuni.  History  calls  this  method  of  govern- 
ment "nepotism."  It  enabled  the  Pontiff  at 
once  to  exalt  his  own  family,  to  keep  a  hold 
on  the  temporal  power  which  was  always 
slipping  away  into  the  hands  of  local  tyrants, 
to  resist  the  great  Roman  houses,  and  to  feel 
a  I  home  in  the  Vatican.  Its  disadvantages 
are  equally  apparent;  it  lowered  the  Papal 
prestige;  it  gave  rise  to  infinite  abuses;  it 
was  the  origin  of  many  wars  and  of  continual 
plots  and  counterplots;  nor  can  it  be  said  of 


POMP  AND  DECAY  83 

the  two  most  conspicuous  groups  of  Cardinals 
and  lay-rulers  whom  it  produced  ill  the 
hey-day  of  the  Renaissance,  that  they  were 
anything  else  than  a  calamity  to  the  Church 
and  to  Christendom. 

These  were  the  Catalan  house  of  Borgia, 
and  the  Genoese  house  of  Riario-Rovere. 
A  third  line  of  nepotism  starts  with  Gio- 
vanni dei  Medici,  son  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnifi- 
cent, who  was  Cardinal  at  fourteen  (March, 
1489),  and  who  became  Leo  X.,  to  be  suc- 
ceeded by  his  cousin  Giulio,  the  unhappy 
Clement  VII.  Thus  Naples,  which  was  de- 
pendent on  Spain,  Genoa  which  commonly 
yielded  to  French  influence,  and  Florence 
identified  with  the  Medici,  exercised  in  turn 
the  immense  political,  financial,  and  spiritual 
powers,  now  that  all  hopes  of  reform  had 
died  away,  of  a  secularized  Popedom.  Efforts 
were  made  to  break  up  this  concentrated 
sovereignty,  sometimes  by  the  Colonna, 
again  by  the  Orsini,  representing  old  feudal 
brigandages;  or  yet  again  by  Cardinals  like 
Ascanio  Sforza,  who  was  Milan's  ambassador 
in  the  Sacred  College.  But  they  were  all 
baffled  and  came  to  naught. 

The  striking  group,  Riario-Rovere,  sprang 
from  a  humble  folk  at  Savona.     Its  founder, 


84      PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

Sixtus  IV.  (1471-148-4),  had  been  General  of 
the  Franciscans.  He  was  learned  in  mediaeval 
fashion,  devout,  and  personally  blameless. 
But  his  sudden  elevation  to  the  Papacy 
impaired  his  judgment,  while  the  favours 
which  he  lavished  on  his  nephews  amazed 
even  a  corrupt  world.  The  riches,  honours, 
vices,  and  pleasures  of  Pedro  Riario,  "a 
mendicant  friar  made  Croesus,"  Cardinal  at 
twenty-five,  consumed  by  his  intemperance  at 
twenty-eight  (December,  1471-March,  1474), 
take  the  reader  back  to  Sejanus  and  cast  over 
Sixtus  IV.  the  shadow  of  Tiberius.  Another 
nephew,  Girolamo,  tyrannized  Rome  in  the 
Pope's  name,  trampled  down  the  Colonna, 
married  the  virago  of  Milan,  Caterina  Sforza, 
got  from  Sixtus  Imola  and  Forli,  and  was 
murdered  as  a  "second  Nero"  by  his  own 
guard  (April  14,  1488),  who  flung  his  naked 
corpse  out  of  the  palace  window. 

But  the  great  man  of  whom  Sixtus  might 
well  be  proud  was  Julian  della  Roverc,  also 
a  friar,  member  of  the  Sacred  College  at 
twenty-eight  (1471),  and  declared  Pope 
Julius  II.  in  1503.  Created  archbishop  of 
Avignon  and  Bologna,  bishop  of  Lausanne, 
Coutance,  and  other  widely-scattered  sees, 
abbot    of    Nonantola    and    Grotta    Ferrata, 


POMP  AND  DECAY  85 

this  young  man,  for  whose  sake  the  Canon 
Law  and  the  claims  of  the  electors  were  so 
shamelessly  flung  aside,  was  not  without  some 
sparks  of  nobility.  He  stands  high  above 
all  the  Popes  that  have  reigned  since  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  by  his  determined  action,  in 
which  nepotism  had  no  place,  the  Papal  States 
were  at  length  permanently  established.  Six- 
tus,  who  rode  roughshod  over  Italian  schemes 
and  policies,  was,  in  Machiavelli's  opinion, 
''the  first  Pope  who  began  to  show  the  extent 
of  the  Papal  power."  He  left  Bohemia  and 
Hungary  to  themselves.  He  did  nothing  to 
stem  the  Ottoman  advance.  In  the  splen- 
dours, architectural  and  spectacular,  of  this 
son  of  St.  Francis  we  feel  that  a  Nemesis 
lurks,  and  that  the  "Eternal  Gospel"  will 
take  its  revenge. 

To  what  extent  Sixtus  may  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  the  treachery  and  sacrilege  com- 
bined which  make  up  the  conspiracy  called 
"of  the  Pazzi,"  is  a  question  that  has  been 
vehemently  debated.  On  April  26,  1478, 
Giuliano  dei  Medici  was  brutally  slain,  and 
Leonardo  wounded,  during  High  Mass  in  the 
Duomo  at  Florence.  A  plot  to  overthrow 
their  government  had  been  discussed  before 
the  Pope,  who  considered  Lorenzo  his  enemy, 


8G      PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

and  was  approved  by  him;  but  he  said,  "I 
do  not  wish  the  death  of  any  man  on  my 
account."  Sixtus  cannot  have  known  the 
details  of  the  assassination  beforehand,  or 
that  it  would  take  place  in  Sta.  Maria  del 
Fiore,  since  all  this  was  arranged  suddenly 
and  after  another  plan  had  been  given  up. 
"It  is,  however,  deeply  to  be  regretted,"  says 
Pastor,  "that  a  Pope  should  play  any  part 
in  the  history  of  a  conspiracy."  His  friends 
not  only  failed  to  oust  the  Medici  from 
Florence;  they  suffered  instantly  for  their 
evil  deeds;  and  Salviati,  archbishop  of 
Pisa,  who  went  to  seize  the  Palazzo  Pubblico, 
was  himself  seized  and  hanged  from  one  of 
its  windows.  These  atrocious  scenes,  char- 
acteristic of  Italian  politics,  were  but  an 
instance  of  that  which  in  every  city  through- 
out the  Peninsula  might  be  witnessed  when 
parties  were  engaged  in  conflict.  We  shall 
not  in  our  pages  do  more  than  allude  to  them; 
but  they  were  constantly  enacted  and  must 
not  be  forgotten. 

Passing  over  the  insignificant  years  of 
Innocent  VIII.  (1484-1492),  who  was  merely 
intent  on  aggrandizing  his  children's  estate, 
we  conic  to  the  election,  bought  with  money 
and  promises,  of  Rodrigo  Borgia,  who  took, 


TOMP  AND  DECAY  87 

as  he  said,  the  name  of  the  "invincible 
Alexander"  (August  10,  1492).  Singularly 
handsome  and  dignified  in  person,  frank  to 
cynicism,  astute,  indefatigable,  good-natured 
and  unscrupulous,  Alexander  was  hailed 
like  a  demigod  at  his  coming  in.  Of  him  and 
of  Julius  II.  one  has  said  excellently  that  they 
were  Emperors  rather  than  Popes.  This 
Borgia  left  his  name  hanging  like  a  thunder- 
cloud over  the  Vatican.  He  has  a  legend 
so  black  that  to  relieve  it  of  a  single  stain 
may  be  deemed  apologizing  for  iniquity. 
Yet  no  pontiff  could  have  dared  such  crime 
or  earned  such  an  infamous  reputation  had 
the  Rome,  the  Italy  of  his  day,  not  condoned 
or  even  admired  his  "magnificence  in  sin." 

Alexander  was  no  hypocrite.  Beautiful 
and  strong,  with  fierce  primitive  instincts,  he 
answered  to  some  old  pagan  ideal,  cherished 
by  the  Southern  imagination.  That  he  had 
not  the  virtue  of  a  priest  and  did  not  trouble 
himself  concerning  the  Church's  welfare;  that 
he  was  an  open  profligate  who  turned  the 
sacred  palace  into  a  Pompeian  house  of 
pleasure;  that  he  made  his  bastard  son 
a  Cardinal,  and  entrusted  the  government  of 
the  Vatican  to  his  bastard  daughter,  Lucrezia; 
that  murder  seemed  to   dog  his  footsteps; 


88     PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

and  that  the  foulest  wickedness  was  thought 
credible  when  reported  of  him — who  is  there 
that  has  not  read  these  things?  We  may 
take  Lord  Acton's  estimate,  which  would  be 
fair,  even  though  domestic  sacrileges  and 
tragedies  had  been  wanting  in  the  chronicle. 
"Alexander,"  he  says,  "fills  a  great  space  in 
history,  because  he  so  blended  his  spiritual 
and  temporal  authority  as  to  apply  the  re- 
sources of  the  one  to  the  purposes  of  the 
other."  He  was  an  Italian  sovereign  who 
made  the  Church  a  means  to  accomplish 
political,  nay  personal,  ends. 

This  indefinite,  unconquerable  power  it 
was  which,  as  the  Borgias  applied  it,  roused 
Machiavelli's  admiration,  not  without  a  sense 
of  terror.  His  model  "Prince,"  consummate 
in  strategy,  striking  hard  and  aiming  high, 
pure  intellect  unfettered  by  a  sense  of  crime, 
was  Ceesar  Borgia.  Ca?sar  (1475-1.507), 
Roman  Cardinal,  French  duke,  captain  of 
cut-throats,  putter  down  of  tyrants,  ran  in 
his  short  life  through  so  many  vicissitudes, 
grim  and  gay,  between  the  altar,  the  camp, 
the  throne,  and  the  prison,  that  it  is  not 
easy  to  believe  he  was  only  in  his  thirty- 
second  year  when  he  fell  fighting  at  the  siege 
of  Xavarrese  Viana.    So  perfect  an  exemplar 


POMP  AND   DECAY  89 

of  Renaissance  beauty,  craft,  and  violence 
did  this  splendid  youth  appear  to  be  that 
the  Malatesta,  Baglioni,  Medici  paled  beside 
him.  Caesar  Borgia  subdued  Alexander  VI. 
himself,  as  though  he  were  a  sardonic 
Mephisto  scorning  the  too-facile  emotions  of 
Faust.  In  that  world  where  Law  and  Gospel 
served  but  as  a  two-edged  sword  of  earthly 
dominion,  these  men  prospered.  It  was  their 
hour,  and  the  power  of  darkness. 

A  regular  drama  now  begins,  falling  into 
three  acts,  which  we  might  name  Charles 
VIII.,  Savonarola,  Ca?sar  Borgia.  Over 
against  them  lies  the  vast  New  World, 
touched  as  in  a  dream  by  Columbus  (October 
1"2,  1402),  which  Alexander  in  three  several 
documents  assigned  to  Spain,  subject  to  the 
rights  of  any  other  Christian  communities, 
and  provided  that  Portugal's  monopoly  of  the 
African  coast  was  not  infringed.  The  Borgia 
Pope  thus  won  for  himself  a  place,  where  he 
is  still  to  be  seen  giving  his  award,  on  the  great 
gates  of  the  Capitol  at  Washington.  He 
was  acting  as  Catholic  tradition  warranted. 
But  Italy,  too,  had  become  a  New  World, 
abounding  in  treasures  of  civilization,  tempt- 
ing the  less  favoured  peoples,  or  at  least  their 
sovereigns,  to  make  of  it  a  prey.    France,  con- 


90      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

solidated  under  Louis  XL,  had  now  gained 
Brittany  by  the  somewhat  shameful  mar- 
riage of  its  Duchess  Anne  to  Charles  VIII. 
Charles,  an  ugly  dwarf,  but  attractive,  and 
by  temperament  a  crusader,  had  claims 
through  the  house  of  Anjou  on  Naples,  on  the 
Holy  Land.  He  was  invited  across  the  Alps 
by  Ludovico  il  Moro,  Duke  of  Milan,  and 
reached  Asti  September  9,  1494.  His  advent, 
as  a  saviour  and  a  scourge,  had  been  foretold 
by  Savonarola,  whose  mighty  words  were 
shaking  Florence  and  Italy. 

Girolamo  Savonarola  (1452-1498)  was  a 
Dominican,  last  of  the  great  mediaeval  friars, 
prophet  and  martyr  of  the  Catholic  Reforma- 
tion, which  he  did  not  live  to  see.  Coming  to 
Florence  in  1481,  his  rudeness  of  speech  (he 
was  a  native  of  Ferrara,  not  a  Tuscan) 
gained  him  scanty  audience.  At  San  Gemi- 
gnano  he  beheld  the  vision  of  the  sword  over 
Italy;  the  Church  was  to  be  chastened  and 
renewed.  His  sermons  at  Brescia,  strongly 
marked  by  symbolism,  were  echoed  far  and 
wide;  when  he  came  back  to  Florence  in 
1489  his  lectures  on  the  Apocalypse  threw 
men  into  ecstasy,  and  he  carried  the  people 
with  him.  The  friar  was  not  an  obscurantist ; 
but  he  mourned  over  the  ruin  of  the  Church; 


POMP  AND  DECAY  91 

he  detested  the  wickedness  of  prelates  and 
Cardinals;  he  spoke  vehemently  in  condem- 
nation of  the  cancerous  vices  with  which 
Humanism  dealt  so  lightly;  and  he  foresaw 
that  a  catastrophe  was  inevitable.  Lorenzo 
dei  Medici  treated  this  new  preacher  with 
kindness;  but  Savonarola  would  not  take 
his  side.  After  Lorenzo's  death,  when  the 
foolish  Piero  misgoverned  Florence,  the 
prophet  announced  coming  woes  in  accents 
that  struck  terror;  and  on  September  21  his 
text  was  "Behold,  I  bring  a  flood  of  waters 
upon  the  earth."  It  proclaimed  that  the 
French  were  in  Italy. 

The  Florentines  sent  ambassadors  to 
Charles,  among  them  Savonarola.  November 
saw  the  Medici  driven  out  and  the  French 
king  received  in  state  by  a  free  people. 
Savonarola  pressed  upon  Charles  the  duty 
of  going  to  Rome  and  reforming  the  Church. 
Alexander,  threatened  with  a  General  Council, 
admitted  the  King,  who  was  overmatched 
in  policy  and  yielded  to  him  the  obedi- 
ence of  France.  Charles'  regiments  con- 
quered Naples;  Italy  fell  prostrate  before 
him;  then  at  Fornovo  (July  5,  1495)  he 
lost  all  that  he  gained.  The  French  passed 
away  like  a  vision  of  the  night.    Still  Florence, 


92      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

which  was  now  all  one  with  Savonarola, 
clung  to  the  Gallic  alliance.  On  the  other 
ide  Alexander  formed  the  Italian  League. 
He  despised  the  sermons,  though  pointed  at 
himself,  of  the  "chattering  friar,"  but  he  was 
resolute  in  capturing  the  city  on  the  Arno 
for  his  projects.  He  called  Fra  Girolamo  to 
Rome,  and,  on  his  disobedience,  found  osten- 
sible motives  to  silence,  excommunicate,  and 
degrade  the  prophet,  whom  Florence  now 
rejected  as  violently  as  she  had  followed  him. 
Trial,  torture,  execution  upon  a  high  gibbet 
too  much  resembling  a  cross — such  were  the 
rewardsof  Savonarola  for  preaching  righteous- 
ness under  Alexander  VI.  (May  28,  1498). 

Two  acts  of  the  play  were  played  out;  the 
Pope  had  triumphed  over  king  and  friar. 
Turning  as  with  a  flash,  Alexander  took  up 
the  French  alliance  in  1499,  to  defeat  which 
in  1498  he  had  burnt  Fra  Girolamo.  His 
eldest  son,  the  Duke  of  Gandia,  had  been 
murdered  and  flung  into  the  Tiber;  accord- 
ingly Ccosar  Borgia  threw  off  the  Cardinal's 
robes  and  became  a  layman  that  he  might 
found  a  dynasty  in  Romagna  to  which  the 
Papal  succession  could  be  attached.  Long 
ago  the  house  of  Theophylact  had  annexed  to 
itself  the  Holy  See  for  more  than  eighty  years. 


POMP  AND  DECAY  93 

Why  should  not  the  house  of  Borgia  do  as 
much?  Caesar  went  on  embassy  to  Louis  XII. 
at  Chinon;  he  married  Charlotte  of  Navarre, 
being  now  Duke  of  Valentinois;  and  when 
Louis  entered  Milan  as  a  conqueror  (Octo- 
ber 6,  1499),  the  Pope's  captain-general  set 
about  reducing  the  tyrant  lords  of  Romagna 
with  a  nondescript  army  of  hired  ruffians, 
French,  Spaniards,  and  Italians. 

Caesar  captured  Faenza,  menaced  Florence, 
and  was  bought  off  with  a  large  ransom,  while 
Alexander  blessed  the  partition  of  Naples  be- 
tween France  and  Spain,  humbled  the  Co- 
lonna,  and  had  his  daughter  Lucrezia  married 
to  Alfonso  d'Este.  On  the  last  day  of  De- 
cember, 1502,  Caesar  had  all  his  worst  enemies 
in  hand  at  Sinigaglia.  Having  taken  them  by 
a  transcendent  act  of  treachery,  whom  he 
would  he  slew;  and  the  Pope,  not  to  be  more 
scrupulous,  smote  the  rest  of  the  Orsini,  and 
left  their  Cardinal  to  die  in  Sant'  Angelo. 
Men  trembled  and  admired.  There  seemed 
no  reason  why  Caesar  should  not  make  himself 
king  of  Italy.  The  French  lost  Naples 
again  in  May,  1503.  In  August  Rome  was 
visited  with  malarial  fever.  Alexander  and 
Caesar  both  sickened  of  it.  On  August  18 
the  Pope  died,  and  with  him  every  hope  of 


94      PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

a  Borgia  dynasty  expired.  On  All  Saints' 
Day,  November  1,  1503,  his  life-long  enemy, 
Julian  della  Rovere,  was  elected  to  St.  Peter's 
Chair  by  an  unanimous  vote.  Julius  IT.  com- 
pelled Csesar  to  yield  up  all  his  conquests  and 
castles.  The  once  invincible  chief  took  ser- 
vice under  his  father-in-law,  the  King  of 
Navarre,  and  though  he  died  bravely,  came 
to  an  inglorious  end.  His  epic  or  epitaph  we 
may  consider  was  written  by  Machiavelli  in 
the  "Prince,"  which  raises  political  science 
"beyond  good  and  evil,"  to  a  height  of  wis- 
dom  or  infamy. 

Julius  II.  had  spent  his  storm-tost  days 
chiefly  in  the  service  of  France,  to  whose 
martial  enterprising  genius  he  felt  allied.  We 
might  describe  him  shortly  as  the  Antipope 
of  Avignon  (where  his  escutcheons  and 
monuments  remain)  while  Alexander  VI. 
anathematized  him  at  Rome.  He  made  an 
indifferent  friar,  a  disedifying  bishop,  and  a 
great  Pope.  His  unvarnished  tongue,  rough 
Genoese  vigour,  contempt  for  literary  grim- 
aces, and  large  designs,  reveal  the  soldier- 
pontiff,  whom  Italy  should  have  taken  for  its 
king.  He  was  neither  honest  nor  virtuous; 
but  he  knew  how  to  rule  better  than  his  brutal 
cousin,   Girolamo  Riario;    and  unlike  Alex- 


POMP  AND  DECAY  95 

ander  VI.  he  had  no  family  ambition.  While 
trafficking  in  sacred  things,  and  purchasing 
his  own  election  by  lavish  engagements,  he 
put  forth  a  Bull  which  condemned  simony, 
with  effective  though  tardy  consequences. 
But  his  eminent  fame  is  due  to  actions  of  a 
mixed  baseness  and  grandeur.  Julius  II. 
had  noble  aspirations.  He  meant  the  Holy 
Sec  to  enjoy  freedom  and  Italy  to  see  the 
Barbarians  turn  their  backs.  One  power 
alone  hindered  this  consummation — stealthy, 
politic,  grasping  Venice,  which,  in  the  tremu- 
lous equilibrium  of  five  States  and  a  score  of 
principalities,  pursued  its  fatal  idea  of  acquir- 
ing a  Terra  Firma  from  the  Alps  to  the  Apen- 
nines. Venice  never  gave  up  its  attempts  on 
Ravenna,  Rimini,  and  the  old  "Pentapolis," 
which  had  been  given  to  the  Apostolic  See  by 
Pepin  as  long  ago  as  756.  We  must  sadly  own 
that  the  Republic  of  St.  Mark,  by  its  foolish 
and  unjust  measures  to  keep  that  which  did 
not  belong  to  it,  ruined  Italian  freedom. 

Julius  II.  was  not  a  man  to  be  trifled  with. 
He  formed  the  League  of  Cambray  in  1508, 
after  recovering  Bologna  from  the  Bentivogli. 
It  aimed  at  nothing  less  than  the  partition  of 
Venetian  territories  among  the  French,  Ger- 
man, Spanish,  and  other  allies,  including  the 


96     PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

Pope.  At  Vaila  the  Republic  suffered  a 
crushing  defeat  (May  14,  1509)  which  is 
reckoned  the  beginning  of  its  decline,  Julius 
humbled  the  Venetians  to  the  dust;  he  set  up 
once  more  the  States  of  the  Church  in  Central 
Italy.  Then  he  turned  on  his  confederate 
Louis  XII.  He  captured  Mirandola,  himself 
acting  as  general,  failed  at  Ferrara,  and  might 
seem  to  be  overwhelmed  when  young  Gaston 
de  Foix  won  the  bloody  battle  of  Ravenna, 
Easter  Sunday,  April  11,  1512.  But  Gaston 
was  killed  in  the  moment  of  victory;  and 
Julius  outmanoeuvred  the  French  schismatics 
with  his  Latcran  Council,  got  Bologna  the  sec- 
ond time,  restored  the  Medici  at  Florence  with 
Spanish  help,  not  without  frightful  scenes 
at  Prato,  and  died,  February  20,  1513,  the 
strongest  Pope  that  was  to  be  for  centuries. 
He  had  driven  out  the  French.  They  would 
return  more  than  once,  to  be  finally  defeated 
by  Spain,  which  was  now  rising  to  Imperial 
dominion  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

Strange  tilings  were  coming  to  pass.  The 
nephew  of  Sixtus  IV.,  whose  endeavours  to 
oust  the  Medici  from  Florence  had  involved 
him  in  conspiracy,  and  left  to  his  apologists 
no  tolerable  burden,  was  now  their  restorer. 
Ilis    vacant   throne    would    be   occupied    for 


TOMP  AND   DECAY  97 

well-nigh  twenty  years  by  Leo  X.,  the  son  of 
Lorenzo,  and  Clement  VII.,  son,  but  not 
legitimate,  of  the  murdered  Giuliano.  Under 
the  mild  and  seductive  Leo  (1513-1520)  Rome 
enjoyed  all  that  the  Renaissance  could  give; 
it  became  "the  revel  of  the  earth,  the  masque 
of  Italy";  but  a  Pope  who  desired  to  be  called 
"delicise  generis  humani," — a  Christian  Em- 
peror Titus — was  not  made  for  success  in 
politics  or  war.  Leo  treated  with  all  the 
powers;  practised  Medicean  arts  of  diplomacy 
to  the  utmost;  but  unluckily  took  sides 
against  France  when  its  new  young  king, 
Francis  L,  was  on  the  eve  of  gaining  the 
battle  at  Marignano  where  the  Swiss  in- 
fantry lost  its  invincible  character  (Septem- 
ber 11,  1515).  He  had  no  choice  but  to 
submit.  The  final  result  was  a  victory  won  by 
the  French  crown  over  the  Gallican  Church. 
In  1516  a  decree  was  passed  by  the  Lateran 
Council,  which  did  away  with  certain  exemp- 
tions and  prerogatives  hitherto  claimed  for 
the  King  of  France,  and  known  as  the  Prag- 
matic Sanction.  But  a  Concordat  was  en- 
tered into  by  the  high  contracting  parties, 
the  Crown  and  the  Curia,  which  allowed  the 
king  most  extensive  liberties  in  dealing  with 
ecclesiastical  affairs;  and  he  might  henceforth 
nominate  to  all  the  bishoprics  and  abbeys  in 


98      PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

his  realm.  The  Concordat  granted  a  royal 
supremacy  of  which  more  was  to  be  heard 
under  Louis  XIV.;  but  these  consequences 
would  not  have  prevented  Leo  from  signing  it. 
On  March  1G,  1517,  the  Fifth  Lateran 
Council  was  dissolved.  It  had  not  been  able 
to  reform  abuses,  redress  grievances,  or  unite 
the  warring  nations  of  Christendom  against 
Islam.  That  same  year,  on  All  Hallows  Eve, 
an  Augustinian  friar  named  Martin  Luther 
fastened  on  the  door  of  the  Castle  Church  at 
Wittenberg  in  Saxony  ninety-five  theses,  or 
propositions,  on  the  subject  of  indulgences. 
The  Reformation,  which  was  specially  de- 
signed to  attack  the  traditional  beliefs  touch- 
ing the  Communion  of  Saints,  reckons  this 
as  its  birthday.  German  grievances  would 
avenge  themselves  on  Rome  by  laying  waste 
the  German  Church.  It  was  time  that  Leo  X. 
quitted  the  stage  where  he  had  been  acting 
a  somewhat  frivolous  part.  lie  died  of  joy 
and  fever  at  his  country  house  of  Magliana, 
on  bearing  that  the  French  were  driven  from 
Milan  (December  1,  15-21).  Six  years  later 
Rome  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  Spanish  and 
Lutheran  host,  which  ended  the  triumphant 
days  of  Humanism.  We  must  now  draw 
nearer  to  that  heart-shaking  event,  and 
describe  how  it  came  to  pass. 


CHAPTER  III 

from  the  sack  of  rome  to  the  beginnings 
of  the  thirty  years'  war  (1527-1618. 
st.  ignatius  of  loyola's  "spiritual 
exercises") 

St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  so  men  believed  dur- 
ing the  Middle  Ages,  was  founded  by  the  first 
Christian  Emperor,  Constantine,  and  con- 
secrated by  St.  Silvester  on  November  18, 
320.  The  Popes  dwelt  in  their  Lateran  house 
beside  St.  John's,  which  was  their  Cathedral; 
but  St.  Peter's  lifted  its  majestic  height  over 
the  tomb  of  the  Prince  of  the  Apostles. 
Spared  by  Alaric,  Genseric,  Totila,  it  ran 
some  risk  of  destruction  from  the  Lombards, 
who,  under  Luitprand,  took  away  its  sacred 
lamps  in  738.  Their  sacrilegious  attempt 
brought  down  Pepin  and  his  Franks  upon 
them,  with  such  consequences  as  we  have 
briefly  told.  In  800  Charlemagne's  corona- 
tion began  a  long  and  most  romantic  series 
of  these  imperial  rites,  constantly  dabbled  in 
blood.  Saracens  from  Kairouan  plundered 
the  Basilica  in  840,  which  necessitated  the 
9y 


100    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

erection  of  walls  about  it  by  Leo  IV.,  and 
gave  rise  to  the  Leonine  City.  In  St.  Peter's 
Charles  the  Bald  was  crowned  Emperor  by 
John  VIII.  (875).  When  Otho  I.  "translated 
the  Roman  Empire  to  the  Eastern  Franks" 
(962),  he  knelt  inside  the  great  doors  and  did 
homage  to  the  fisherman  of  Galilee.  There 
in  996  Otho  III.  received  consecration  from 
his  youthful  cousin,  the  saintly  Gregory  V. 
There  was  Henry  VI.,  last  of  the  Franconians, 
crowned  by  his  prisoner  and  victim  Paschal 
II.  There,  again,  did  Frederick  Barbarossa 
in  1155  seize  the  Roman  diadem,  while  his 
lanzknechts  outside  massacred  a  thousand 
of  the  Roman  people.  There  his  grandson, 
Frederick  II.,  was  recognized  as  lord  of  the 
world  by  Ilonorius  III.  Another  and  a 
weaker  prince  of  that  name,  but  a  Habsburg 
not  a  Hohenstauffen,  Frederick  III.,  ends 
the  shining  procession  rather  ignominiously, 
under  Nicholas  V.,  in  1452.  Since  that  year 
no  Emperor  has  been  crowned  in  Rome  or 
Constantinople.  Sancta  Sophia  was  degraded 
into  a  mosque;  St.  Peter's,  which  had 
fallen  into  decay  while  the  Great  Schism 
went  on,  was  slightly  restored  by  the  care  of 
Nicholas,  but  awaited  demolition  from  the 
rude  hands  of  Julius  II. 


TO  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR    101 

Julius,  designing  himself  a  tomb  (such  is 
the  vanity  of  mortals)  gave  the  commission 
for  it  to  Michael  Angelo.  The  Florentine 
exceeded  all  former  Papal  monuments  in  his 
vast  and  beautiful  drawings;  but  where 
was  room  to  be  found?  His  patron  resolved 
to  destroy  the  Basilica  which  over  thirty 
generations  of  Catholics  had  visited,  and 
he  called  in  Bramante  to  do  it — an  architec- 
tural genius  but  enemy  of  all  that  was  not 
classic  in  style.  Bramante's  conception  of  a 
Greek  cross  and  lofty  domes  to  replace  the 
old  St.  Peter's  has  been  praised  by  every 
succeeding  judgment;  so  much  of  it  as  was 
carried  out  entitles  the  later  Church  to  our 
warm  admiration.  But  there  was  no  need 
to  shatter  and  tear  down  the  venerable 
fabric,  as  Julius  II.  tore  it  down  in  one  single 
year,  1505.  He  little  saw  how  wide  a  gulf  he 
was  opening  between  the  united  Christendom 
of  past  ages  and  the  centuries  to  come. 

The  new  St.  Peter's  became  a  field  of  battle, 
a  sign  that  was  at  once  spoken  against.  With- 
out gifts  from  the  whole  West  it  could  never 
fulfil  the  Pope's  colossal  ambition.  Those  gifts 
were  sought  by  the  system  of  Indulgences, 
now  elaborately  adapted  to  bring  in  revenues 
of  war  and  peace,  which  the  Roman  Chancery 


102    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

could  employ  as  it  listed.  Theologians,  like 
Cardinal  Cajetan,  were  carefully  explaining 
on  what  principles  such  donations  might  he 
asked  and  given.  Their  theory  was  unim- 
peachable; but  the  nations  north  of  the 
Alps,  and  at  their  head  Germany,  murmured 
against  a  method  of  taxation  which  was  li- 
able to  every  sort  of  abuse,  which  maintained 
in  the  Holy  Place  men  so  dissolute  as  the  Re- 
naissance had  fostered— boy-cardinals,  non- 
resident bishops,  secularized  popes.  Ques- 
tions of  morals,  finance,  religion,  national 
differences,  were  brought  to  a  definite  and 
dangerous  burning-point  by  the  Indulgences 
given  to  build  St.  Peter's.  "  When  Indul- 
gences were  extended,  multiplied,  and  con- 
verted into  money  transactions,"  says  Pastor, 
"it  was  obvious,  taking  into  account  the 
covetousness  of  the  age,  that  the  greatest 
abuses  should  prevail." 

But  these  were  symptoms  rather  than 
causes  of  a  change  long  foreseen  by  the  wise, 
to  which  the  Conciliar  movement,  the  cry 
for  reformation  in  head  and  members,  the 
"hundred  grievances  of  the  German  nation," 
the  Hussite  revolts,  the  French  Pragmatic 
Sanction,  the  English  Acts  of  Parliament 
against   Papal   "provisions,"   and  pecuniary 


TO  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR    103 

demands,  had  pointed  the  way.  On  viewing 
the  whole  field  where  squadrons  now  began 
to  form,  we  perceive  that  the  object  of  attack 
was  Italian  supremacy.  If  doctrine  was  called 
in  question,  yet  the  first  line  of  assault 
did  not  throw  itself  against  dogma  but 
against  Canon  Law.  "By  putting  forward 
a  decree  of  Clement  VI.,"  says  Lord  Acton  of 
Cajetan,  "he  drove  Luther  to  declare  that 
no  Papal  decree  was  a  sufficient  security  for 
him."  The  campaign  moved  from  abuse  of 
such  decrees  to  the  authority  of  Popes,  of 
Councils,  of  the  whole  hierarchical  system. 
In  1517  Luther  did  not  deny  that  Indulgences 
might  be  good  in  themselves;  before  three 
years  had  elapsed  he  burnt  Leo  X.'s  Bull 
condemning  him,  and  in  1525  his  marriage 
declared  monastieism  to  be  unchristian,  while 
his  impetuous  disciples  had  been  foremost  in 
taking  away  the  Mass.  Instead  of  Church 
tradition,  Luther  substituted  "the  Bible  and 
the  Bible  only";  this  gave  him  the  principle 
of  dogma.  For  grace  conferred  by  the  sacra- 
ments which  a  priest  administered,  he  lighted 
upon  the  hitherto  disregarded  idea  of  imputa- 
tion by  faith  apprehending  its  Redeemer;  this 
made  ordinances  superfluous  or  mere  signs, 
and   the   priesthood  fell   into  a   subordinate 


104    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

rank,  while  the  preacher  dictated  laws  from 
his  pulpit. 

By  1520  Luther's  position  was  clear.  It 
reversed  Catholicism  when  it  recognized  that 
the  individual  Christian,  united  with  his 
fellows,  made  the  Church,  and  not  the  Church 
the  Christian.  Luther  did  not  trouble  about 
history;  he  knew  nothing  of  art;  his  Latin 
studies  had  left  him  quite  untouched  by  the 
liberal  spirit  which  distinguished  men  of  the 
Renaissance  type.  He  was  a  Roman  neither 
by  taste  nor  temperament.  We  may  find  his 
ancestors  in  the  "De  Moribus  Germanorum" 
of  Tacitus;  and  that  is  why  he  carried  the 
nation  with  him. 

Lnder  what  scandalous  conditions  Leo  X. 
revived  the  Petrine  indulgence,  despite  his 
oath  to  the  contrary,  and  shared  its  profits 
with  Albert,  Archbishop  of  Mayence,  we 
may  learn  from  historians.  In  1517  the  Ger- 
man Church  was  a  confederacy  of  high-born 
prince-prelates,  enormously  rich,  too  often 
dissolute,  and  at  best  men  of  the  world  who 
left  their  spiritual  charge  to  others.  There 
was  evidence  of  much  piety  in  the  middle  and 
lower  classes;  but  the  clergy  were  impover- 
ished, the  religious  orders  had  fallen  back 
after   Cardinal   Cusa's   reform.      These   evils 


TO  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR    105 

were  aggravated  by  the  weakness  of  the 
Empire,  sunk  under  Maximilian  to  its  lowest 
ebb.  At  Rome,  in  a  world  of  art  and  luxury, 
political  intrigue  was  always  rampant;  but 
no  court  official  studied  the  German  problem 
or  could  have  gained  a  glimpse  of  what  the 
Renaissance  on  that  side  of  the  Alps  fore- 
boded. Tetzel,  whom  Luther's  propositions 
assailed  point-blank,  was  supported  by  his 
own  order,  the  Dominicans.  Accordingly,  one 
Dominican,  Prierias,  "Master  of  the  Sacred 
Palace,"  replied  to  Luther;  and  a  second, 
Cardinal  Cajetan,  cross-examined  him  at 
Augsburg  (October,  1518).  Cajetan's  pro- 
cedure involved  the  Holy  See  where  Tetzel 
alone  had  been  compromised.  Miltitz,  who 
came  next,  put  the  Dominican  preacher  aside 
and  granted  the  fact  of  abuse.  John  Eck 
argued  against  Luther's  appeal  to  a  Coun- 
cil. He  took  the  whole  case  to  Rome,  and 
he  assisted  in  drafting  the  Bull,  "Exurge 
Domine,"  by  which  forty-one  Lutheran 
theses  were  condemned  and  their  author  was 
excommunicated  (June  15,  15L20). 

By  this  time,  events  had  come  to  pass  which 
determined  the  future  of  Germany  and  of 
Europe.  In  June,  1519,  the  Flemish  or 
Spanish    prince    Charles    had    been    elected 


10G    TAP  AC  Y  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Emperor,  greatly  to  the  disappointment  of 
Leo;  for  the  Pope  judged,  and  history 
confirms  his  judgment,  that  Italian  inde- 
pendence would  perish  under  Charles  V.  As 
much,  if  not  more  important,  was  the  discov- 
ery Luther  made  that  he  could  write  and 
speak  a  German  which  would  kindle  his 
nation  to  mutiny.  His  tracts  in  1520,  "To 
the  Christian  Nobles,"  on  "The  Babylonish 
Captivity  of  the  Church,"  and  on  "The 
Freedom  of  a  Christian  Man,"  have  been 
called  "half-battles";  their  language  by 
sheer  brute  force  thundered  down  opposition. 
Luther  was  the  strong  man  armed,  who  felt 
that  Germany  would  delight  in  his  strokes 
against  Rome.  The  Latin  elegants  who 
thronged  about  Leo  could  never  grasp  such 
weapons;  in  fighting  this  Teuton  spirit  they 
were  dealing  with  the  unknown. 

Charles  V.  had  his  personal  views;  to  him 
the  Lutheran  trouble  was  a  politician's  re- 
source; he  would  use  it  in  restraint  of  the 
Curia.  Hence  the  Diet  of  Worms,  the  defence 
permitted  to  an  open  hercsiarch,  and  his  safe 
retirement.  Charles  was  ever  orthodox;  but 
no  ruler  could  be  more  absolute.  He  outlawed 
Luther;  lie  would  never  have1  given  him  up  io 
a  Roman  Inquisition.    During  Luther's  stay 


TO  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR    107 

at  the  Wartburg  he  translated  the  New  Testa- 
ment. This  was  not  for  lack  of  German 
Bibles;  there  is  abundant  proof  that  Scripture 
was  well  known,  preached  and  commented  on 
long  before  Wittenberg  saw  the  friar  among 
its  professors.  He  meant  his  New  Testament 
to  serve  as  an  appeal  and  a  standard.  It 
became  the  type  of  High  German  literature; 
it  was  a  rival  to  the  Vulgate  and  hung  out 
as  the  national  flag  of  defiance. 

While  Luther  lay  in  hiding,  Leo  X.  died. 
By  an  extraordinary  turn  the  cardinals  chose 
a  Fleming  to  be  Pope,  as  the  German  Electors 
had  made  one  an  Emperor.  Adrian  VI., 
Regent  of  Spain,  was  a  noble  but  not  attract- 
ive person,  who  tried  by  individual  effort  to 
reform  Rome,  and  who  acknowledged  to  the 
Diet  of  Nuremberg  that  these  frightful  evils 
had  their  origin  at  the  Papal  Court.  But  he 
understood  so  little  of  the  inward  meaning 
of  Luther  as  to  remark  that  no  novice  in 
theology  would  have  fallen  into  his  errors. 
The  expression  has  a  double  edge.  Granting 
Catholic  principles  and  Catholic  logic,  Adrian 
was  fully  justified.  But  Erasmus  might 
have  replied,  "Holy  Father,  Lutheranism  is 
not  a  heresy;  it  is  a  religious  revolution." 
For,   as  Lord  Acton  says,   "There  was  no 


108    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

question  at  issue  which  had  not  been  pro- 
nounced by  him  (Luther)  insufficient  for 
separation,  or  which  was  not  abandoned 
afterwards,  or  modified  in  a  Catholic  sense 
by  Melanchthon.  That  happened  to  every 
leading  doctrine  at  Augsburg,  at  Ratisbon, 
or  at  Leipzig."  The  Pope  by  himself  could 
not  work  a  reformation;  but  Adrian  has  the 
glory  of  tracing  its  design.  When  he  died 
one  thing  was  manifest,  that  the  dreaded 
council  would  have  to  be  convoked.  Another, 
still  more  astonishing,  was  hidden  from  men's 
eyes,  that  where  the  Regent  of  Spain  failed, 
though  seated  in  the  Papal  Chair,  a  saint 
from  the  old  Catholic  land  of  Biscay  would 
succeed.  Adrian,  a  little  before  he  laid  his 
burden  down,  had  given  to  Ignatius  of  Loyola 
in  Rome  the  pilgrim's  licence  to  set  out  for 
Palestine.  Ignatius  entered  Jerusalem  on 
September  4,  1523.  Ten  days  afterwards 
the  last  non-Italian  Pope  expired;  reform 
was  delayed  until  the  founder  of  the  Company 
of  Jesus  could  take  it  in  hand.  At  this  time 
Luther  was  forty  years  old;  Loyola  was 
thirty-two.  But  their  attitude  towards  one 
another  is  that  of  action  and  reaction;  these 
eight  years  divide  two  generations. 
Julius  dei  Medici  now,  by  deliberate  effort, 


TO  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'   WAR    109 

made  himself  Pope,  after  a  conclave  which 
lasted  fifty  days.  Cold,  hesitating,  timid, 
all  Clement  VII.  desired  was  to  continue  the 
policy  of  the  Borgia,  but  so  that  his  own 
family  should  profit  by  it.  He  held  Rome 
and  dominated  Florence.  The  Colonna  were 
his  deadly  enemies,  the  Orsini  his  kinsfolk. 
He  leagued  himself  with  France  for  the  sake 
of  Milan  in  December,  1524.  And  on  Feb- 
ruary 24,  1525,  Francis  I.  lost  the  Battle  of 
Pavia,  lost  his  freedom,  and  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Charles  V.  In  the  negotiations 
that  followed,  Emperor,  Pope  and  King  were 
deceivers  and  deceived.  Charles  imposed 
on  his  captive  at  Madrid  impossible  condi- 
tions, making  probably  the  chief  political 
blunder  of  his  life.  Clement  is  reported  to 
have  said  that  it  was  an  excellent  Treaty  if 
Francis  did  not  observe  it.  And  the  French 
King  gained  his  liberty  at  the  expense  of  his 
honour.  Whether  the  Pope  released  him 
from  his  oath  is  uncertain;  that  he  never 
meant  to  keep  it  every  one  but  Charles  V. 
took  for  granted.  Clement,  however,  was 
so  ill-advised  by  Giberti  as  to  conclude 
against  the  Emperor  an  alliance  with  Francis 
once  more.  He  offered  Charles's  general, 
Pescara,    the    crown   of   Naples   as    a   bribe 


110    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

for  desertion.  Outrageous  despatches  on  both 
sides  brought  matters  to  a  crisis,  and  on  June 
23,  1528,  Clement  plunged  into  the  last  war 
undertaken  by  a  Pope  on  behalf  of  Italian 
independence. 

It  is  hard  to  condemn  and  difficult  to 
excuse  a  policy  as  unfortunate  as  it  was  tor- 
tuous. The  Pope  did  not  see  that  he  was 
tying  the  Emperor's  hands,  thereby  assisting 
Luther  and  the  Protestant  revolt.  But 
Charles,  deeply  exasperated,  and  as  it  were 
struck  with  madness,  himself  became  the 
author  of  a  series  of  events  which  have  left  on 
his  memory  an  indelible  stain.  To  his  envoy, 
Moncada,  he  suggested  that  the  Colonna, 
headed  by  their  unspeakable  Cardinal  Pom- 
peo,  should  assail  Clement  in  Rome.  To  the 
Lutherans  he  sent  a  message  that  they  were 
wanted  against  the  Turk,  and  they  would 
know  what  Turk  he  meant.  On  September 
19,  1526,  his  first  charge  was  executed. 
Spaniards  and  Colonnesi  rode  in  through  the 
Lateran  Gate.  Next  morning  Clement  fled 
into  St.  Angelo;  the  Vatican  was  plundered, 
St.  Peter's  horribly  desecrated,  and  the  Pope's 
life  threatened.  Under  compulsion  he  par- 
doned the  Colonna,  but  in  November  out- 
lawed them  and  seized  their  strong  places. 


TO  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'   WAR    111 

A  doubtful  truce  carried  him  on  to  February, 
1527,  when  the  Lutheran  free  captain,  Frunds- 
berg,  joined  forces  with  Bourbon,  a  French 
traitor,  and  their  undisciplined  army  began 
its  expedition  towards  Rome.  Frundsberg 
died  at  Ferrara  in  March.  The  Pope  offered 
an  armistice,  sent  a  ransom,  but  could  not 
hinder  these  miscreants,  after  they  had  found 
Florence  on  its  guard,  from  pushing  on  to  the 
Eternal  City.  They  reached  Isola  Farnese 
on  May  4,  1527.  Clement  had  taken  courage 
again,  and  would  not  treat  with  Bourbon. 
May  6  arrived,  a  misty  morning,  and  the 
General  ordered  the  assault.  He  was  him- 
self killed  immediately;  the  Prince  of  Orange 
(a  name  destined  to  be  ominous  in  the  wars 
of  religion  to  Catholics)  took  the  command. 
Again  Clement  crept  into  St.  Angelo  by  sub- 
terranean ways;  and  before  two  in  the 
afternoon  Rome  was  captured. 

Thus  a  Medici  Pope  and  a  Catholic  Em- 
peror delivered  the  Capital  of  Christendom 
into  Lutheran  hands,  six  years  after  Charles 
had  put  Luther  to  the  ban.  For  eight  days 
the  sack  of  Rome  continued.  Murder,  lust, 
sacrilege,  avarice,  held  high  festival;  and 
Spaniards  outdid  Germans  in  riot  and  pil- 
lage.    The  people  fled;    cardinals  and  clergy 


112    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

were  tortured  to  disclose  their  treasures; 
the  beautiful  things  which  had  been  created 
by  the  Renaissance  underwent  violent  hand- 
ling or  were  destroyed.  Nine  months  passed 
before  the  lawless  soldiery  quitted  their  prey. 
Florence  expelled  the  Medici;  Clement  was 
a  prisoner.  He  escaped  on  December  G, 
1527,  to  Orvieto,  despoiled  of  all  his  pos- 
sessions, and  with  him  the  joyous  days  of  a 
paganized  Humanism  fled  from  Rome.  By 
the  Treaty  of  Cambray  Francis  I.  yielded  to 
the  Spaniard  his  claims  on  Italy  (August  3, 
1529).  The  Pope  forgave  Charles,  and 
crowned  him  at  Bologna,  February  24,  1530, 
anniversary  of  the  Battle  of  Pavia  and 
the  Emperor's  birthday.  Florence,  which 
had  gallantly  struggled  for  freedom,  with 
Michael  xAngelo  among  its  defenders,  capitu- 
lated on  August  12  of  the  same  year.  Italy 
was  now  to  become  a  geographical  expres- 
sion. Venice  cowered  behind  its  lagoons. 
The  Reformers  strode  on  to  the  League  of 
Schmalkald,  where  princes  led  and  preachers 
followed.  Clement  was  willing  to  call  a 
Council,  to  make  unheard-of  concessions,  or 
so  lie  professed.  Charles  in  1532  granted 
large  lolcralion  to  Protestants  at  Nuremberg. 
When  this  ill-starred  pontiii'  died,  September 


TO  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'   WAR    113 

25,  1534,  England,  Denmark,  Sweden,  part 
of  Switzerland,  one  half  of  Germany,  were  in 
revolt.  To  the  interests  of  his  family,  to 
the  possession  of  Florence  or  Milan,  he  had 
sacrificed  the  Church. 

England  was  lost  by  Clement;  but  the 
honour  of  religion  was  tardily  saved.  After 
Lollardy  sank  into  discredit,  no  heresies 
troubled  the  nation.  Henry  VIII.,  as  every 
coin  of  the  realm  bears  witness,  wrote  against 
Luther,  and  in  return  was  named  Defender 
of  the  Faith  by  Pope  Leo.  Wolsey  made 
himself  Papal  Vicar  when  Clement  lay  cap- 
tive in  St.  Angelo.  Then  the  King's  "case 
of  conscience"  and  "great  matter"  was  put 
before  him  at  Orvieto.  He  seemed  willing 
to  go  to  any  length  in  concession,  if  we  may 
believe  the  English  envoys.  But  the  Holy 
See  must  be  judged  by  its  formal  acts,  and 
during  six  years  the  Pope  fenced,  but  did 
nothing  beyond  permitting  his  legates,  Wolscy 
and  Campeggio,  to  open  their  court  in  Eng- 
land.  Queen  Katharine  appealed  to  Rome. 
Henry  got  his  divorce  from  Cranmer  in  May, 
1533,  after  marrying  Anne  Boleyn  in  January. 
Cranmer's  action  signified  that  the  King, 
and  not  the  Pope,  had  supreme  spiritual 
jurisdiction,    or    as    men    said    in    mediaeval 


114   PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

language,  "the  whole  power  of  the  keys." 
Convocation  had  been  coerced  into  declaring 
him  head  of  the  Church.  Parliament  by 
various  measures  gave  him  fresh  prerogatives 
consequent  on  his  new  title.  Rome  must 
move  at  last.  The  tribunal  of  the  Rota 
declared  Henry's  marriage  with  Katharine 
valid;  and  Clement  VII.,  in  secret  consistory 
(March  24,  1534),  confirmed  that  finding. 
He  was  answered  by  the  Act  of  Royal  Suprem- 
acy with  its  "terrible  powers,"  in  November; 
and  the  connection  of  England  with  Papal 
Rome,  which  went  back  nine  hundred  years 
and  more,  was  severed  at  a  stroke.  But 
Clement  had  passed  away  before  the  axe  fell. 

Section  II 

THE    CATHOLIC    REVIVAL    (1-534-1016) 

That  year,  1534,  is  commonly  and  rightly 
reckoned  a  turning-point  in  the  history  of 
the  Vatican.  Paul  III.,  elected  October  13 
by  an  almost  unanimous  vote,  marks  in  his 
own  person  the  change  from  an  unreformed 
Papacy  to  another  and  a  higher  type.  As 
Cardinal  Farnese,  it  was  believed  that  he 
owed     lii's    elevation    under    Alexander    VI. 

He    had 


THE  CATHOLIC  REVIVAL         115 

children  born  out  of  wedlock,  one  of  whom, 
when  he  was  Pope,  he  made  a  prince  at  Parma 
and  Piacenza — miserable  little  towns,  of 
which  the  names  have  ever  proved  disastrous 
to  the  Holy  See.  For  his  son's  advantage  he 
thwarted  Charles  V.,  now  resolved  on  exter- 
minating Protestants  by  iron  as  well  as  by 
fire.  But  Paul  III.  likewise  opened  the 
Sacred  College  to  reformers  on  the  Catholic 
side — to  Reginald  Pole,  Sadoleto,  Contarini; 
and  to  Erasmus,  who  declined  the  purple  and 
died  at  Basle  in  153G.  A  new  company  was 
entering  on  the  scene.  By  the  momentous 
Bull,  "Regimini  Militantis  Ecclesiee,"  in 
1540,  the  Company  of  Jesus  had  its  approval 
from  Paul  III.,  who  exclaimed  after  reading 
a  draft  of  its  constitution,  "The  Finger  of 
God  is  here."  In  1542  the  L'niversal  Inquisi- 
tion was  set  up  in  Rome,  under  the  Pope's 
immediate  presidency.  His  reforming  car- 
dinals were  urging  him  to  comply  with  the 
Emperor's  insistent  demands  by  convoking 
a  General  Council.  After  various  attempts, 
and  not  very  willingly,  at  last  he  appointed 
its  meeting  at  Trent,  in  the  Tirol,  for  March, 
1515. 

So,  on  these  different  lines,  the  influence 
of  Spain  was  shaping  war  and  controversy  and 


116    PAPACY  AND   MODERN   TIMES 

legislation  into  a  crusade  against  Protestants, 
wherever  found.  It  is  obvious  that  the 
motives  which  stirred  Englishmen  and  Teu- 
tons to  cast  off  their  allegiance  to  Rome,  did 
not  for  the  most  part  exist  south  of  the  Alps 
and  the  Pyrenees.  Moreover,  as  writers  ob- 
serve who  are  by  no  means  friendly  to  Cathol- 
icism, "a  reform  of  the  Spanish  clergy,  secular 
and  regular,  had  taken  place  before  Luther 
arose."  Thanks  to  such  earnest  rulers  as  the 
Cardinals  Mendoza  and  Ximenes,  to  saints 
like  Thomas  of  Villanova,  and  to  the  action  of 
bishops  and  synods,  the  moral  condition  of 
ecclesiastics  in  general  "was  immeasurably 
superior  to  that  of  the  clergy  in  any  other  part 
of  Western  Christendom/'  Learning,  too, 
had  revived.  The  University  of  Alcala  was 
founded  by  Ximenes,  and  has  given  its  name 
to  the  great  Complutensian  Polyglot,  which 
he  published  from  its  presses.  Spaniards  now 
held  the  largest  empire  that  had  ever  been 
known.  They  were  masters  of  Germany  and 
the  Netherlands,  of  Italy  north  and  south,  of 
a  vast  and  growing  dominion  in  America. 
The  resources  of  Pope  and  Emperor  combined 
were  immensely  superior  to  those  which  could 
be  mustered  by  small  German  princes  and 
the     multiplying    sects     of    the    Reformers. 


THE  CATHOLIC  REVIVAL        117 

England  was  pursuing  its  own  eccentric 
course  under  Henry  VIII. ,  who  never  became 
a  Lutheran.  France  had  been  defeated  again 
and  again  by  Charles  V.  But  this  new  cru- 
sade was  calling  for  a  leader  and  a  plan  of 
campaign.  Both  were  now  furnished  in  the 
person  of  Ignatius  of  Loyola,  and  by  means  of 
the  Company  of  Jesus  which  he  created. 

One  man  had  found  the  secret  of  combating 
evil  within  and  without  the  Catholic  Com- 
munion. It  is  written  in  the  "Spiritual 
Exercises,"  of  which  a  marvellous  meditation 
on  the  "Two  Standards," — the  standard  of 
Christ  and  the  standard  of  Satan — forms,  as 
it  were,  the  strategical  centre.  The  effect 
was  speedily  apparent. 

"In  a  single  generation,"  says  Macaulay, 
"the  whole  spirit  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
underwent  a  change."  But  that  change 
was  a  reversion  to  Catholic  principles,  over- 
laid though  not  extinguished  by  the  secular 
ambition  of  prelates,  and  the  pagan  luxury 
to  which  they  yielded  themselves.  Ignatius 
could,  therefore,  as  Lord  Acton  observes, 
undertake  to  reform  the  Church  by  the 
Papacy.  Luther  was  for  destroying  the 
Papacy.  Loyola  built  his  plans  on  the  very 
admission  of  all  that  it  claimed.     He  com- 


118    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

polled  the  Pope,  we  may  say,  to  realize  his  own 
ideals;  and  Ignatius  was  canonized,  whereas 
Savonarola  had  been  burnt.  His  genius 
moved  by  the  logic  of  an  absolute  sincerity. 
Given  the  Catholic  faith,  reason  might  apply 
it  freely  to  every  subject;  but  to  save  the 
Faith  was  the  first  step. 

"The  history  of  the  Order  of  Jesus  is  the 
history  of  the  great  Catholic  reaction."  Loy- 
ola, to  give  him  his  conventional  name, 
created  the  associations  of  romance,  self- 
sacrifice,  discipline,  learning,  and  infinite 
courage,  that  set  a  man  against  a  man — him- 
self becoming  the  protagonist  of  Luther — 
until  then  unaccountably  wanting  in  Catholi- 
cism under  the  Renaissance.  Yet  the  world 
had  been  impressed  already  by  the  stupen- 
dous greatness  of  Michael  Angelo;  by  the 
imperturbable  heroism,  smiling  on  death, 
of  Sir  Thomas  More;  it  was  Rome  that 
appalled  and  saddened  the  faithful.  Now 
Rome  had  its  heroes,  its  resident  saints. 
Contarini  was  an  apparition  of  light;  Pole, 
a  gracious  and  gentle  St.  John,  opposing 
his  meekness  to  Henry  YIII.s  tyranny; 
the  stern  Caraffa  showed,  at  least,  a  fanati- 
cism which  must  be  admired.  And  it  was  no 
small    thing   that  even  the  shifty,   worldly- 


THE   CATHOLIC   REVIVAL         119 

minded  Clement  VII.  had  let  the  Kingdom 
of  England  go,  rather  than  violate  the 
sanctity  of  the  marriage-contract.  This 
was  the  more  significant  that,  left  to  him- 
self, the  Medici  would  have  bartered  all  laws, 
divine  and  human,  for  revenge  on  Charles 
V.,  whose  kinswoman  he  was  protecting  in 
Christ's  Name. 

New  organs  of  combat  and  acquisition, 
in  a  life  and  death  struggle,  were  needed, 
unless  Italy,  invaded  by  German  heresies 
after  German  legions,  and  France,  which  had 
lately  produced  Calvin,  were  to  be  wrested 
from  the  Popedom,  seemingly  on  the  edge  of 
dissolution.  The  old  Orders  had  been  cast 
into  the  fire  of  adversity,  and  came  out  a 
heap  of  ashes.  Calumny  has  fastened  on 
them  charges  not  proven  or  much  exagger- 
ated. It  is  undeniable,  however,  that  the 
leading  men  of  the  Reformation  were  many 
of  them  bred  in  the  cloister;  that  riches  and 
ease  had  relaxed  the  fibres  of  discipline;  that 
neither  Cusa,  nor  Capistrano,  nor  Travcrsari, 
nor  Pius  II.,  nor  iEgidius  Viterbo  in  the 
Lateran  Council,  did  more  than  touch  the 
fringe  of  inveterate  abuses.  The  commission 
appointed  by  Paul  III.  went  so  far  as  to 
recommend  that  existing  Orders  and  Com- 


120    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

munitics  should  take  no  fresh  novices;  an 
entirely  new  generation  must  begin  the 
better  time.  The  Cardinal  of  Lucea,  Guidic- 
cioni,  would  reduce  them  to  four,  and  these 
of  strict  observance.  In  15-28,  the  Ca- 
puchins had  restored  the  early  Francis- 
can model;  but  when  Ochino,  their  superior, 
fell  away  to  Protestantism,  they  ran  no 
slight  risk  of  suppression.  Other  less  im- 
portant attempts  were  made  by  the  Bar- 
nabites  and  Theatines.  It  was  Caraila, 
the  Neapolitan,  of  this  last  foundation, 
who  noted  Ignatius  with  his  companions 
at  Venice  and  bade  him  go  to  Rome,  where 
the  Crusade  against  the  new  Mohammedans 
called  him. 

Ignatius  obeyed,  and,  in  spite  of  oppo- 
sition, persuaded  Contarini,  Guidiccioni,  and 
Paul  III.  himself,  that  the  Company  of  Jesus 
ought  to  be  allowed  to  exist.  The  name  gave 
offence.  The  freedom  from  monastic  usages 
provoked  remonstrance.  Ignatius,  a  soldier 
who  had  undergone  conversion  from  worldly 
aims  to  follow  his  Captain  Christ,  had  been 
imprisoned  by  the  Spanish  Inquisition;  he 
had  composed  at  Manresa  while  yet  a  lay- 
man his  ''Spiritual  Exercises";  he  had 
travelled  over  Europe,  lived  as  a  poor  student 


THE   CATHOLIC  REVIVAL         121 

in  Paris,  and  trained  half  a  dozen  men 
(including  Francis  Xavier)  to  be  heroes  in 
the  Catholic  War.  He  required  from  his 
comrades  military  obedience.  They  pledged 
themselves  to  go  wherever  they  might  be 
sent  by  the  Holy  See.  On  April  7,  1541, 
Ignatius  was  elected  general  for  life.  On 
the  same  day  Xavier  set  sail  from  Portugal 
for  the  East  Indies. 

Absolute  government  and  religious  freedom 
are  ideas  not  easy  to  reconcile.  The  six- 
teenth century  was  struggling  with  both  of 
them — a  Rebecca  who  was  to  bring  forth 
Jacob  and  Esau,  enemies  from  their  birth. 
Luther's  Christian  State,  Henry  of  England's 
Royal  Supremacy,  Calvin's  "Institutes,"  the 
"Spiritual  Exercises"  of  St.  Ignatius,  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  the  decrees  of  Trent, 
the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  the  Westminster 
Catechisms,  are  all  framed  on  the  principle 
of  submission  to  the  powers  that  be.  Volun- 
tary association,  if  at  all  dreamt  of,  is  in- 
stantly set  aside.  Heresy  was  treason,  and 
treason  was  heresy.  None  (except  a  small 
detested  minority,  afterwards  Socinian) 
complained  of  rulers  because  they  persecuted 
dissent.  The  question  turned  not  on  freedom, 
but  on  truth.    Rome,  indeed,  whose  tribunals 


122    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

judged  heretics,  assimilated  baptism  to  the 
oath  of  allegiance  and  held  that  Protestants 
were  rebels.  Over  the  unbaptized  Rome 
did  not  pretend  to  exercise  jurisdiction. 
But  Protestant  rulers — how  were  they  to 
behave  towards  their  Catholic  subjects— 
and  their  subjects  towards  them?  By 
Canon  Law  (especially  the  Fourth  Council  of 
Lateran,  1215),  a  Christian  prince  lapsing 
into  heresy  forfeited  his  sovereign  rights.  He 
was  excommunicated  by  the  very  fact;  and 
it  was  the  Pope's  duty,  unless  repentance 
followed,  to  depose  him.  Paul  III.  in  1535 
drew  up,  and  did  his  best  to  publish,  his 
Bull  of  deposition  against  Henry  VIII., 
according  to  mediaeval  precedent  and  in 
the  strong  language  of  the  Roman  Chancery. 
If  execution  did  not  take  place,  the  reason 
was  that  Charles  V.  had  other  burdens  on 
his  shoulders,  not  that  he  questioned  the 
Papal  prerogatives.  For  Canon  Law  was 
the  law  of  Christendom. 

Catholics,  it  has  been  said  on  their  behalf, 
condemned  "aggressive"  intolerance,  while 
defending  by  the  sword  society  against 
anarchists,  the  moral  order  against  inimor- 
alists,  the  faith  against  apostates.  But 
Luther,    Melanchthon,    Calvin,    Knox,    ap- 


THE   CATHOLIC  REVIVAL  123 

proved  of  rooting  out  idolatry  and  error 
by  the  "civil  magistrate."  Melanchthon 
has  recorded  his  theory  in  a  sentence,  "Non 
enim  plectitur  fides  sed  hoeresis" — the  judge 
chastises  heresy,  not  faith.  For  example, 
the  Catholic  Mass  implied  false  doctrine 
and  was  the  practice  of  idolatry,  therefore 
governments  must  put  it  down.  Melanch- 
thon, again,  contended  that  "obstinate" 
Anabaptists  should  be  done  to  death;  and 
Beza  would  have  the  same  penalty  inflicted 
on  Anti-Trinitarians.  He  was  defending 
the  course  taken  with  Servetus,  betrayed, 
arrested,  condemned,  and  executed  (October 
27,  1553),  under  Calvin's  direction.  Calvin 
himself  published  next  year,  "A  Defence 
of  the  Orthodox  Faith,  showing  that  heretics 
ought  to  be  punished  by  the  sword."  All 
the  early  Reformers  taught  passive  obedience 
to  governors,  however  tyrannical;  but  the 
ruler  must  take  his  doctrine  from  the  clergy. 
Charles  V.  naturally  proceeded  to  act  on 
this  principle,  only  that  he  preferred  the  old 
clergy  to  the  new.  But  he  still  hoped  for 
a  reconciliation,  and  the  "Interim"  of  June, 
1544,  tolerated  the  confession  of  Augsburg, 
until  the  Church  by  its  oecumenical  judgment 
should  decide  the  points  at  issue.  The 
Council  of  Trent  opened  with  a  few  prelates 


124    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

at  the  appointed  time,  too  late  for  an  agree- 
ment with  men  who  were  hardened  against 
Rome  by  twenty-five  years  of  controversy. 
In  1547  the  Emperor,  commanding  Italian 
and  Papal  troops,  won  the  great  victory  of 
Aliihlberg  over  the  Lutherans.  It  decided 
nothing.  At  Passau,  and  then  at  Augsburg 
in  155.5,  a  regular  peace  was  concluded 
by  which  these  same  Lutherans  gained 
toleration  for  themselves,  but  other  sectaries 
were  left  without  recognition.  Xo  man, 
however,  was  henceforth  to  suffer  death  on 
account  of  his  nonconformity;  but  dissenters 
might  be  expelled.  This  was  the  principle 
"Cujus  regio,  ejus  religio,"  the  creed  followed 
the  prince.  By  another  clause,  of  "ecclesi- 
astical reservation,"  if  a  Catholic  prelate 
fell  away  he  thereby  lost  his  ''spiritual" 
dominions.  In  virtue  of  this  exception, 
territories  extending  from  Austria  to  the 
Rhine  and  as  far  down  as  Holland  were 
preserved  "under  the  crozier."  But  to  the 
apprehension  of  Charles  V.  the  Peace  of 
Augsburg  took  from  the  Holy  Roman  Empire 
its  sacred  character  and  its  meaning.  His 
long  day  was  going  down  in  defeat.  "He 
had  neither  reconciled  the  Protestants  nor 
reformed  the  Church."  Under  somewhat 
affecting    circumstances    he    laid    down    Ins 


THE  CATHOLIC  REVIVAL         125 

dignities  one  by  one,  and  expired  at  the  con- 
vent of  St.  Juste,  September  21,  1558.  His 
son,  Philip,  inherited  the  Spanish  legacy  and 
the  Catholic  interest,  which  he  upheld  or 
exploited  during  the  next  forty  years. 

Francis  I.,  who  died  in  1547,  fulfilled  that 
saying,  "Unstable  as  water,  thou  shalt  not 
excel."  He  wavered  from  side  to  side, 
although  the  French  policy  was  always  now, 
in  effect,  anti-Roman.  It  demanded  a  servile 
Papacy,  of  which  Avignon  afforded  the 
type;  a  Gallican  Church  whose  "liberties" 
should  be  interpreted  by  the  Crown  law- 
yers; and  a  balance  of  power  to  check  the 
Austrian-Spanish  pretensions.  To  drive  the 
wedge  of  Lombardy  between  Vienna  and 
Madrid  was  the  object  of  those  repeated 
Italian  campaigns.  Had  France  embraced  the 
Reformation,  it  might  have  attained  in  this 
reign  to  a  success  that  did  not  come  until 
Richelieu  had  frankly  allied  himself  with 
German  and  Swedish  Protestants.  But 
Luther's  intense  Germanism,  which  swept 
away  Roman  opposition  in  the  Fatherland, 
coidd  not  charm  the  delicate  French  tempera- 
ment; to  chivalry,  as  Francis  I.  still  conceived 
of  it,  a  Saxon  peasant's  language  and  manners 
were  revolting.  But  neither  would  the  King 
of  France,  who  had  already  sent  Protestants 


126    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

to  the  stake,  be  persuaded  by  Master  John 
Calvin  to  break  with  Rome. 

Calvin  (1509-15G4),  a  scion  of  the  middle 
class,  wrote  his  "Institutes"  before  he  was 
six-and-twenty,  addressing  the  Crown  on 
behalf  of  loyal  yet  persecuted  "Reformed" 
Christians.  This  volume,  the  "Social  Con- 
tract" of  the  century,  became  to  all  the 
Churches  that  went  beyond  Luther  but  did 
not  advance  so  far  as  Socinus,  an  inspired 
comment  on  the  Bible.  It  brought  back 
the  idea,  which  Luther  discarded,  of  a  Church 
with  coercive  powers;  "new  presbyter  is 
but  old  priest  writ  large,"  said  Milton,  and 
history  echoes  him.  Yet  there  was  a  differ- 
ence. The  Papal  authority,  existing  along- 
side of  feudalism,  and  displayed  in  courtly 
forms,  had  lost  its  earlier  popular  aspect. 
The  Reformation,  though  used  by  kings  and 
nobles  for  their  own  purposes,  was  chiefly 
a  middle-class  movement.  In  all  countries 
it  took  hold  of  the  industrial  centres;  it 
flourished  in  the  towns.  We  may  say  that 
it  disdained  ritual,  rejected  chivalry,  and 
tended  to  overthrow  government,  even  while 
its  preachers  talked  of  passive  obedience. 
The  Calvinist,  above  all  men,  was  not  passive, 
and  was  not  obedient,  except  to  his  clergy, 
who  directed  all  affairs,  public  and  private. 


THE   CATHOLIC  REVIVAL         127 

France  by  her  Huguenots,  Scotland  by  her 
Presbyterians,  the  Netherlands  by  their 
"Gueux,"  England  by  her  Puritans,  gave 
proof  that  in  the  teaching  of  Calvin  there  was 
danger  to  royalty;  at  all  events,  so  thought 
anointed  persons  who  had  to  deal  with  its 
uprisings.  Luther  was  a  mystic,  not  a  con- 
structive politician.  Calvin  was  a  lawgiver, 
a  Lycurgus  at  Geneva;  his  Christian  Com- 
monwealth did  not  grant  much  power  to  kings 
in  the  long  run,  as  Rousseau  demonstrated. 
Geneva,  the  Rome  and  Sparta  of  the  North, 
reckoned  these  two  men,  who  were  alike  in 
principle  absolute,  among  her  citizens.  Let 
us  mark  the  word  "citizen"  which  in  political 
science  was  to  replace  the  word  "subject." 
At  once  Protestant  and  revolutionary,  it  tells 
us  why  no  French  king  could  become  a 
Huguenot,  and  why  Henry  of  Navarre  sac- 
rificed his  creed  to  his  crown. 

When  Charles  V.  abdicated,  he  made  over 
his  hereditary  dominions  to  Philip  II.,  at  that 
time  King  of  England.  Philip's  appearance 
in  the  English  statute-book,  like  Charles's 
capture  of  Rome,  constitutes  an  era.  The 
Sack  of  1527  finished,  as  no  other  event  could, 
a  Renaissance  that  dishonoured  religion. 
The  fires  of  Smithncld  gave  Elizabeth  her 
sovereign    power,    which    no    arbitrary    con- 


128    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

duct  of  ministers  and  no  conspiracies,  at  home 
or  abroad,  could  weaken.  Spain  and  England, 
warily  diplomatizing  with  each  other  until 
the  Armada  was  ready,  held  the  future 
between  them  in  a  doubtful  balance.  The 
Spanish  Empire,  extending  from  Sicily  to 
Mexico,  secure  while  France  was  torn  by  the 
Guises,  the  Condes,  the  Colignys,  had  one 
vulnerable  spot — the  Netherlands,  where, 
thanks  to  Philip  and  his  lieutenant  Alva, 
reform  broke  out  into  revolution.  The  United 
States  of  Holland  were  baptized  in  blood. 
Elizabeth  also,  intent  on  making  Ireland 
Protestant  by  confiscation,  by  laying  Mini- 
ster waste,  by  hunting  the  "mere  Irish" 
down  to  starve  and  die,  entered  on  the 
remarkable  experiment  which  has  bound  the 
Island  of  St.  Patrick  more  closely  than  ever 
to  Rome,  and  sent  forth  its  exiles  as  pioneers 
of  Catholicism  in  three  Continents.  These 
results  were  certain  by  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  What  of  Austria  and 
the  German  Empire?  Would  Central  Europe 
return  to  its  Roman  allegiance,  or  become 
altogether  Protest  an  1?  That  question  was 
answered  by  the  Thirty  Years'  War  and  the 
Peace  of  Westphalia. 

k*  \  i. reformed  and   disorganized/'  the  gov- 
ernment   of    which    Paul    III.    was    the    last 


THE   CATHOLIC  REVIVAL         129 

representative  had  been  shattered  as  by  an 
earthquake.  But  the  Catholic  Church  re- 
mained. Gathering  her  resources,  first  in  the 
Jesuit  Order,  then  in  the  Council  of  Trent, 
and  putting  them  into  the  hands  of  a  reno- 
vated Papacy,  she  went  forward  in  the  New 
and  the  Old  World  undauntedly.  The  Coun- 
cil, divided  into  three  periods  (1545-47; 
1551-52;  1562-64),  "showed  the  Church  as 
a  living  institution,  capable  of  work  and 
achievement;  it  strengthened  the  confidence 
both  of  her  members  and  herself;  and  it  was 
a  powerful  factor  in  heightening  her  efficiency 
as  a  competitor  with  Protestantism,  and  in 
restoring  and  reinforcing  her  imperilled 
unity."  Such  is  the  judgment  of  a  modern 
historian,  not  a  Catholic.  Trent  undid  the 
effects  of  Constance  and  Basle  by  its  entire 
submission  to  guidance  from  the  Vatican.  Its 
theological  decisions  were  shaped  in  large 
measure  by  the  Jesuits  Laynez  and  Salmeron. 
Though  scantily  attended,  the  Council  ex- 
pressed so  unmistakably  the  voice  of  tradition 
that  no  genuine  disciple  of  the  Reformers 
could  accept  it,  and  all  true  adherents  of  the 
Papacy  gave  it  a  hearty  welcome.  France, 
indeed,  and  even  Spain,  faithful  to  their  ro}raI 
despotism,  would  not  suffer  its  decrees  to 
modify  the  civil  legislation.     Philip  II.  was 


130    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

tenacious  of  his  quasi-spiritual  rights;  France 
of  her  Gallican  liberties.  The  German  Empire 
formally  did  not  recognize  the  Council.  It  is 
among  the  fatalities  of  this  and  succeeding 
times,  that  so-called  Catholic  powers  checked 
the  victory  of  their  own  faith,  lest  the 
mediaeval  theocracy  should  be  restored. 

But  no  restoration  came  of  the  system 
which  Gregory  VII.  had  affirmed  as  a  theory 
and  sealed  by  Henry  IV.  's  submission  at 
Canossa.  Paul  III.  could  not  wrest  the 
English  sceptre  from  Henry  Tudor.  "When 
Caraffa  became  Paul  IV.  (1555-59)  his  Nea- 
politan aversion  to  the  Spaniards,  and  his 
headstrong  temper,  led  him  to  declare  war 
against  Philip  II.,  whom  he  threatened  with 
forfeiture  of  all  his  crowns.  Once  more  a 
Spanish  army  came  up  towards  Rome,  under 
the  Duke  of  Alva,  who,  like  a  second  Moncada, 
extorted  peace  at  the  point  of  the  sword. 
When  we  reflect  on  Alva's  la  lor  fame  in  the 
Low  Countries,  on  Paul's  defenceless  position, 
and  on  Philip's  place  in  history  as  champion 
of  Papal  claims,  a  more  amazing  comedy  of 
cross-purposes  can  hardly  be  imagined.  Paul 
IV.  was  a  vigorous  reformer,  yet  he  gave  the 
sacred  purple  lo  nephews  who,  for  manifest 
crimes,  were  put  lo  death  by  his  successor. 
jNlarv  Tudor  and  Cardinal  Pole  had  brought 


THE  CATHOLIC  REVIVAL         131 

England  back  to  the  Roman  Communion. 
This,  surely  not  clear-eyed,  Pontiff  expended 
on  Mary  some  of  the  thunder  with  which  he 
meant  to  strike  her  husband,  suspended  Pole 
from  the  legatine  dignity,  and  thought  of 
proceeding  still  further  when  queen  and 
cardinal  died.  In  1566  the  Cardinal  of 
Alessandria,  who  had  presided  over  the  In- 
quisition with  great  energy,  was  elected,  and 
under  the  name  of  St.  Pius  V.,  holds  a  place 
in  the  Church's  calendar.  By  this  time,  relig- 
ion, diplomacy,  war,  and  tyrannicide  were 
occupying  one  stage  and  exchanging  parts  in 
a  world-wide  confusion.  St.  Pius  V.,  by  the 
solemn  act  "Regnans  in  excelsis,"  declared 
Queen  Elizabeth  fallen  from  her  royal  estate, 
and  bade  her  subjects  give  up  their  allegiance. 
These  were  measures  which  had  no  prospect 
of  success;  on  the  contrary,  as  Urban  ^  III. 
afterwards  took  note,  they  bore  most  heavily 
on  English  Catholics,  charged  with  treason, 
and  from  that  day  liable  to  its  atrocious 
penalties.  Bulls  of  deposition  belonged  to  an 
irrecoverable  past. 

In  Gregory  XIII. 's  reign  occurred  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  (1572),  devised 
by  the  French  Court,  and  still  to  be  seen 
depicted,  though  without  its  historical  inscrip- 
tion, on  the  walls  of  the  Vatican  sala  regia. 


132    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

We  need  not  stir  the  embers  of  that  fire. 
Catherine  dei  Medici  let  Queen  Elizabeth 
know  that  she  might  do  with  her  Catholic 
subjects  even  as  Charles  IX.  had  done  with 
his  Huguenots,  "cujus  regio,  ejus  religio," — 
a  truly  Medicean  philosophy.  The  Catholic 
League,  the  War  in  the  Netherlands,  the 
Spanish  Armada,  had  religion  for  a  pretext,  to 
some  extent  for  a  motive.  But  the  Popes  were 
beginning  to  establish  a  balance  of  European 
powers  instead  of  the  mediaeval  suzerainty 
snatched  from  their  grasp.  Sixtus  V.  (1585- 
1590),  a  strong  ruler,  magnificent  in  his  plans, 
the  founder  of  a  new  system  of  government  in 
the  Curia,  and  of  the  Rome  which  lasted  in 
its  main  lines  down  to  1870,  excommunicated 
Henry  of  Navarre,  and  joined  the  League. 
But  Sixtus  could  not  overcome  Henry.  It 
was  the  unmistakable  feeling  of  the  French 
nation  which  compelled  the  Bearnais  to  quit 
his  Calvinism;  and  Clement  VIII. ,  who 
absolved  him,  desired  to  make  France  a 
counterpoise  to  the  Spanish  monarchy.  This 
was  the  long  duel  that  created  alliances  and 
wars  until  an  effective  solution  was  reached 
in  the  Treaties  of  1648,  when  the  old-world 
system  passed  finally  away.  But  thirty  years 
of  battle  and  of  German  anarchy  went  before 
the  triumph  of  France. 


CHAPTER  IV 

FROM    THE    ESCORIAL    TO   VERSAILLES    (1563- 
1715.  CERVANTES,        "DON       QUIXOTE "  J 

BOSSUET,    "FUNERAL    ORATIONS ") 

Philip  II.,  a  man  of  mediocre  ability,  un- 
pleasing  character,  and  conscientious  attend- 
ance to  duty,  ruled  his  empire  from  his 
desk,  in  the  granite  palace  of  the  Escorial, 
by  slow  unscrupulous  methods,  not  without 
some  degree  of  success.  That  empire,  which 
he  held  during  all  but  five  years  of  Elizabeth's 
reign  (in  fact  from  1556  to  1598)  was  bound 
together  only  by  religion;  and  for  a  time  it 
seemed  that  Philip's  dominions  would  be 
coextensive  with  the  Roman  Church.  From 
1580  he  was  master  of  Portugal  and  all  its 
colonies.  He  exploited,  and  his  missionaries 
converted,  the  American  Indies,  from  which 
the  Silver  Fleet  brought  infinite  and  fatal 
wealth  to  be  hoarded  in  his  treasury.  Spain 
was  governed  on  the  lines  of  High  Protection 
■ — Ihe  Faith  was  to  be  defended,  especially 
against  Luther   (whose  name  comprised  all 

133 


134    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

heretics);  and  the  world's  bullion  was  to  he 
held  as  a  reserve  in  Castilian  coffers.  To 
purge  the  realm,  all  non-converted  Jews 
had  been  expelled  in  1492  by  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella.  The  rigorous  Inquisition,  a 
political  no  less  than  ecclesiastical  engine  of 
government,  kept  watch  over  the  Maranos, 
or  "New  Christians,"  whose  Hebrew  descent 
wTas  more  certain  than  their  belief  in  the  creed 
of  the  Church.  These  unhappy  thousands 
suffered  at  home,  or  fled  abroad — to  Italy 
first,  and  then  to  liberated  Holland.  In 
1507  the  Moriscocs,  equally  suspected  and 
exasperated,  rose  in  revolt;  they  were  over- 
come, to  be  expelled  in  1010  by  Philip  III. 
It  is  not  now  imagined  that  Spanish  com- 
merce or  credit  were  immediately  affected  by 
driving  out  the  Jews. 

Until  France  recovered  from  its  long 
agony,  the  Empire  of  Castile  was  safe,  in- 
comparably rich,  valiant,  and  adventurous. 
As  Giberti  had  warned  Clement  VII.,  the 
Pope  was  become  a  Spanish  chaplain,  seated 
at  Rome  between  Philip's  viceroys  of  Naples 
and  Milan.  The  victorious  Company  of  Jesus 
could  not  fail  to  strengthen  a  power  which  had 
prolocted  them  almost  from  the  beginning. 
English   Catholic  exiles,   Father  Parsons   at 


ESCORIAL  TO  VERSAILLES        135 

their  head,  were  usually  "hispaniolated," 
although  a  few  in  Flanders,  of  whom  Paget 
was  the  spokesman,  remained  loyal,  despite 
their  sufferings.  The  earlier  bonds  of  patriot- 
ism had  melted  in  the  furnace  of  religious 
heats,  and  the  Leaguers  in  France,  Cardinal 
Allen  in  Home,  were  willing  to  yield  the 
crowns  of  their  respective  countries  to  his 
Catholic  Majesty.  The  impending  war  with 
Spain  had  provoked  Coligny's  murder  and  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew — an  event,  said 
Lord  Clarendon,  which  all  pious  Catholics 
at  the  time  abominated.  In  15S5,  when  the 
League  was  formed,  Philip  stood  at  the  zenith 
of  his  power;  he  meant  that  his  daughter, 
Isabel,  should  be  Queen  of  France;  and  on 
the  Armada's  triumph  he  was  to  be  himself 
King  of  England.  Had  Farnese,  Prince  of 
Parma,  succeeded  in  bringing  his  army 
across  the  Channel,  that  usurpation  might 
easily  have  been  effected.  For  the  Spanish- 
Italian  soldiers  were  the  best  in  Europe.  But 
the  Armada  was  wrecked;  Jacques  Clement, 
a  crazy  Dominican  friar,  stabbed  Henry  III.; 
and  the  House  of  Bourbon  commenced  the 
final  stage  of  French  monarchy. 

In  I5ih2  Farnese,  the  great-grandson  of  Paul 
III.,  and  famous  champion  of  the  League, 


136    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

died.  Under  Henry  IV.  the  French,  returning 
to  their  old  ways,  became  Royalist  and 
Gallican  once  more.  England,  delivered  from 
fear  of  Spanish  invasions,  nursing  its  Puritan 
youth  for  the  most  revolutionary  movement 
in  modern  history,  bided  its  time.  The 
Low  Countries,  which  in  15GG  had  risen  only 
to  be  defeated,  in  1572  revolted  again,  and 
in  1570  the  United  States  of  Holland  became 
a  Republic.  They  found  a  leader  in  William 
the  Silent,  Prince  of  Orange.  He  was  killed 
in  1584  by  an  "obscure  fanatic"  named 
Gerard,  who  acted  upon  the  doctrine  of 
assassination  which  divines  allowed  and 
statesmen  practised.  Coligny,  Burghley, 
William  the  Silent  himself,  Queen  Elizabeth, 
and  other  chiefs  of  parties  or  rulers  of  States, 
entered  into  murder-plots.  Mariana,  the 
Spanish  Jesuit,  defended  tyrannicide  and 
Jacques  Clement  in  a  notorious  book,  after- 
wards condemned  by  the  superiors  of  the 
Society;  but  his  views  were  generally  ad- 
mitted, and  the  contrivers  of  the  Powder 
Plot  (whoever  these  happened  to  be)  knew 
that  it  was  so. 

The  triple  alliance  of  France,  England, 
and  the  United  Provinces  in  1596  denoted 
two  conclusions  of  far-reaching  importance. 


ESCORIAL  TO  VERSAILLES        137 

Holland  was,  though  grudgingly,  recognized 
as  a  sovereign  power  which  would  hold  the 
commerce  of  the  seas  until  Cromwell's  Navi- 
gation Act  gave  it  to  Great  Britain;  and  the 
French  government,  professing  itself  Catholic, 
was  taking  up  an  attitude  towards  Spain  and 
Austria  such  as  to  make  universal  Catholic 
restoration  impossible.  The  dying  Philip  gave 
what  was  left  of  the  Netherlands  to  his 
daughter  and  her  husband,  the  "Archdukes." 
A  truce  of  twelve  years,  thanks  to  Henry  IV., 
divided  Belgium  from  the  Dutch  Republic, 
and  Henry,  preparing  to  invade  Germany,  fell 
under  the  poignard  of  Ravaillac  in  1G10. 
The  mission  of  this  Bourbon  prince,  always 
half  a  Protestant,  was  to  be  taken  up  by 
Richelieu,  the  Cardinal-Duke,  orthodox  and 
intolerant  at  home,  a  Calvinist  in  his  policy 
on  the  Meuse  and  the  Rhine,  who  must  be 
held  to  have  sacrificed  his  own  religion  in 
order  that  France  might  seize  the  paramount 
power,  slipping  now  from  the  feeble  hands 
of  Spain. 

The  Thirty  Years'  War,  at  which  we  have 
arrived,  is  not  unfairly  summed  up  as  the 
last  of  the  Crusades,  or  wars  on  behalf  of 
Catholicism.  It  was  a  desperate  struggle  to 
revive    the    Holy    Roman    Empire,    which 


138    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

could  not  be  done  without  opposing  the 
extension  of  privileges,  already  acquired  by 
Lutherans,  to  their  Calvinist  rivals.  Had 
these  latter  been  worsted,  the  Confession  of 
Augsburg  would  have  lost  its  legal  status 
also.  Bohemia  naturally  offered  the  ground 
of  battle.  There,  after  1390,  the  Wycliffite 
movement  had  assumed  a  significance  for 
Central  Europe,  and  had  sown  the  seed  from 
which  Luther  reaped  a  hundredfold.  Its 
King,  George  Podiebrad  (1458-1-171),  fought 
dexterously  against  Roman  influences,  leaving 
the  country  prepared  to  welcome  any  change 
that  would  enable  it  to  cast  off  the  Pope's 
authority.  Lutherans  abounded  in  Bohemia; 
for  under  Maximilian  II.  Austria  had  the  least 
intolerant  of  governments.  Hungary,  too, 
was  largely  Protestant,  while  the  Emperor 
brought  in  "a  conciliatory,  neutral,  uncon- 
ventional Catholicism,"  the  scorn  of  earnest 
believers,  whether  orthodox  or  reformed. 
Poland,  by  reason  of  a  similar  policy,  was  fast 
becoming  the  Promised  Land  of  Socinians. 

But  all  this  while  the  Catholic  Revival  was 
advancing  along  the  German  rivers,  ever  since 
the  Jesuits  had  daringly  established  them- 
selves in  Ingolstadt  under  the  Duke  of  Ba- 
varia   (1511).    Learning,   zeal,  and  political 


ESCORIAL  TO  VERSAILLES        139 

influence,  including  that  of  Charles  V.,  were 
at  their  disposal.  St.  Peter  Canisius,  their 
young  and  brilliant  German  disciple,  per- 
suaded Charles  to  depose  Archbishop  von 
Wied  of  Cologne;  it  was  a  warning  to  every 
prelate  in  the  Fatherland  that  reform  could 
no  longer  be  put  off.  Canisius,  preaching  and 
teaching,  did  a  marvellous  work  among  his 
fellow-countrymen.  He  was  ably  seconded  by 
the  third  General,  who  astonished  Rome  by 
the  spectacle  of  a  Borgia,  Duke  of  Gandia, 
great-grandson  of  Alexander  VI.,  as  remark- 
able for  every  Catholic  virtue  as  his  Papal 
ancestor  had  been  for  the  opposite. 

St.  Francis  Borgia  founded  the  Roman 
College,  or  central  university,  as  it  proved, 
of  the  Society;  he  enlarged  the  German 
College,  due  to  St.  Ignatius,  where  priests 
of  that  nation  might  be  trained  in  strict 
discipline  and  devotion  to  the  Holy  See. 
Rome  was  the  meeting-place  of  saints  as  it 
had  formerly  been  of  poets  and  men  of  letters. 
The  Vatican  put  on  the  air  of  a  monastery. 
Ignatius,  Charles  Borromeo,  Cardinal  Ghis- 
lieri,  afterwards  Pius  V.,  Philip  Neri,  and 
many  others  who  have  been  canonized,  were 
fellow-citizens  or  contemporaries  in  this  new 
age,  fertile  beyond  description  in  a  type  of 


140    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

exalted  and  passionate  sanctity  that  drew 
back  from  no  self-sacrifice  on  behalf  of  the 
Creed  of  Trent.  The  Jesuits  excelled  by  vir- 
tue of  their  military  yet  flexible  system,  and 
displayed  personal  enthusiasm  which  the 
"Exercises " enlightened,  while  obedience  gave 
it  a  definite  scope.  They  were  taught  to  dis- 
like Erasmus;  but  in  their  schools  the  Eras- 
mian  ideas  of  education  prevailed,  and  a 
graceful  literary  style,  a  rhetoric  persuasive 
though  tending  to  be  florid,  announced  that 
these  Clerks  Regular  were  genuine  heirs  of 
the  Renaissance.  Like  Francis  Bacon,  who 
praised  their  methods  of  teaching  unreserv- 
edly, they  took  all  knowledge  for  their  prov- 
ince. Soon  they  could  reckon  names  of  emi- 
nence in  every  department  of  research  and 
discovery.  Their  divines,  Laynez,  Suarez,  and 
in  the  next  generation  the  French  patristic 
scholar,  Pctavius,  made  a  distinct  advance  on 
the  older  theological  methods.  Their  most 
original  writer  was  the  Spaniard  Molina,  who 
refuted  Calvin  and  by  anticipation  Jansenius. 
Rome,  it  has  been  said,  was  now  "serious 
arid  repentant,"  notwithstanding  some  great 
tragedies  of  crime.  By  the  side  of  the  German 
College  similar  institutions  sprang  up.  The 
Canon  Law  was  revised,  the  Vulgate  Bible 


ESCORIAL  TO  VERSAILLES        141 

edited  under  Sixtus  V.  and  Clement  VIII. 
The  Jesuit  Cardinal  Bellarmine  shaped  the 
controversy  with  Reformers  into  the  position 
which  it  kept  afterwards  until  Joseph  de 
Maistre  gave  it  an  entirely  new  basis.  Car- 
dinal Baronius,  the  Oratorian,  published  in 
eleven  folios  a  history  of  the  Church  that 
for  largeness  of  design  and  patience  of  learn- 
ing has  never  been  surpassed.  But  while 
Rome  was  concentrating  her  forces,  "the  first 
explosion  of  private  judgment,"  says  Lecky, 
"had  shivered  Protestantism  into  countless 
sects."  In  this  hurly-burly,  which  was  fast 
becoming  a  civil  war,  the  Lutherans  lost, 
the  Calvinists  gained,  but  the  common  cause 
suffered.  It  would  be  the  task  of  genius  to 
better  Macaulay's  description  of  this  wonder- 
ful change  in  the  tide  of  human  affairs  by 
which  the  Popes,  driven  back  to  their  Roman 
ramparts,  advanced  with  freshly-recruited 
legions  a  hundred  years  later  almost  to 
the  shores  of  the  Baltic.  "At  first,"  writes 
Macaulay,  "the  chances  seemed  to  be  de- 
cidedly in  favour  of  Protestantism;  but  the 
victory  remained  with  the  Church  of  Rome. 
On  every  point  she  was  successful.  If  we 
leap  over  another  half-century  (from  about 
15^0   to   1G30)    we  find   her  victorious   and 


142    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

dominant  in  France,  Belgium,  Bavaria,  Bo- 
hemia, Austria,  Poland,  and  Hungary.  Nor 
has  Protestantism,  in  the  course  of  two 
hundred  years,  been  able  to  recover  any  part 
of  what  was  then  lost." 

Much  had  been  done  for  the  Catholic 
cause  in  Styria  and  Carinthia  by  the  Arch- 
duke Ferdinand,  who,  in  1017,  became  King 
of  Bohemia  and  Emperor-elect.  In  this 
larger  world  he  followed  up  the  same  policy. 
He  did  not  shrink  from  acts  of  repression, 
justified  as  he  held  by  violations  of  law  on  the 
part  of  his  Protestant  subjects,  which  led  to 
revolt  and  his  attempted  deposition  by  them. 
They  offered  the  crown  to  Frederick  V., 
elector  palatine,  son-in-law  of  James  I.,  and 
thus  ancestor  of  the  Hanoverian  Stuarts,  our 
present  reigning  family.  Frederick  came  to 
Prague,  and  the  most  desolating  of  modern 
wars  began  (1618-1648).  In  this  wild  en- 
counter it  is  hard  to  disentangle  secular 
from  religious  motives.  The  Pope  of  the  day. 
Urban  VIII.  (1623-1644),  faintly  shadowed 
forth  in  his  learning,  ostentation,  nepotism, 
and  ambitious  aims,  the  fiercer  memories 
left  him  by  the  Renaissance.  Urbino  fell 
by  reversion  to  the  Holy  See  in  1631.  But 
Urban's  own  war  of  Castro  for  the  duchy  of 


ESCOPJAL  TO  VERSAILLES        143 

Parma  was  humiliating  and  unsuccessful. 
He  leaned  on  France;  distrusted  and  offended 
the  Emperor  Ferdinand;  won  for  himself 
a  bad  name  from  uncompromising  Catholics; 
and  died  without  having  contributed  decisive 
help  to  his  own  cause  in  Germany. 

Richelieu  came  on  the  scene  at  the  States- 
General  of  1614,  where  he  represented  the 
clergy  of  Poitou.  This  assembly,  the  last 
of  its  kind  until  1789,  was  Catholic  in  its 
sympathies,  while  asserting  the  King's  divine 
right  in  opposition  to  Paul  V.  But  Riche- 
lieu's lease  of  absolute  power,  unbroken 
henceforward,  began  in  1624.  The  Cardinal- 
minister  finished  with  his  Huguenots  at  La 
Rochelle  (1628)  but  did  not  revoke  the  Edict 
of  Xantes.  The  Dutch  fleet  helped  this 
Catholic  prelate  to  conquer  their  co-religion- 
ists; and  he  in  turn  protected  Holland 
against  the  united  forces  of  Spain  and  the 
Empire.  He  could  not,  however,  prevent 
the  victorious  onset  of  Tilly,  an  orthodox 
general,  devoted  to  the  Jesuits,  who  for 
ten  years  carried  all  before  him.  Frederick, 
the  "Winter  King,"  lost  Prague;  Max  of 
Bavaria  became  Catholic  elector  instead 
of  the  fugitive  and  deposed  Lutheran;  the 
"League"  was  triumphant.     Wallenstein,  a 


144    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

convert,  also  a  Jesuit  pupil,  created  the 
Austrian  army,  by  way  of  enabling  Ferdi- 
nand to  balance  his  own  allies,  now  be- 
come too  hard  for  him.  The  League  was, 
indeed,  a  religious  confederation,  but  its 
members  did  not  want  the  Emperor  to  be 
strong. 

TVallenstein,  whom  for  an  instant  we  may 
compare  with  Richelieu,  would  have  made 
the  Habsburg  master  of  all  German  princes, 
as  the  Cardinal  in  France  was  breaking  the 
noblesse.  But  the  Emperor  did  not  second 
Wallenstein.  He  published  in  March,  1G29, 
the  Edict  of  Restitution  and  dismissed  the 
lieutenant  who  had  overcome  his  opponents 
gloriously,  but  who  would  not  execute  these 
orders.  By  the  Edict,  all  Church  lands  in 
the  possession  of  Protestants  since  the 
arrangement  at  Passau  (1552)  were  to  be 
given  back.  Lutherans  and  Calvinists  joined 
forces.  Richelieu  had  perhaps  contrived  the 
dismissal  of  Wallenstein;  now  he  called  to 
the  Swedish  King,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  and 
sent  him  into  Germany  as  the  Protestant 
champion  (1030).  Gustavus,  no  doubt,  pro- 
posed to  defend  his  religious  brethren;  but 
the  reward  was  to  be  Sweden's  leadership 
of    Reformed    Europe, 


ESCORIAL  TO  VERSAILLES        145 

high  in  the  heavens.  Tilly  won  Magdeburg, 
which  lying  rumour  accused  him  of  burning; 
but  the  King  defeated  the  Catholic  in  a 
tremendous  battle  at  Breitenfeld,  swept 
down  the  "Church  lane"  from  Wiirtzburg 
to  the  Rhenish  electorates,  and  turned  on 
Bavaria.  Tilly  died  of  his  wounds  at  Ingol- 
stadt.  Wallenstein  was  persuaded  to  save 
Austria  and  the  League.  He  repulsed  Gus- 
tavus,  who  had  come  within  sight  of  the 
Alps;  but  who  had  wasted  his  chance  of 
marching  to  Vienna.  At  Liitzen  (November 
6,  1632)  the  Swedish  hero  was  killed;  his 
star  flashed  and  went  out  like  a  meteor. 
Wallenstein  offered  Saxony  and  Branden- 
burg peace  with  religious  freedom;  but  in  so 
doing,  fell  into  treason.  His  death,  which  is 
the  subject  of  Schiller's  finest  tragedy,  was 
sanctioned  by  the  Emperor.  With  a  deed 
of  assassination  the  German  crusade  came 
to  an  end  (1634).  But  its  fruits  were  not 
scanty.  Ferdinand  had  inherited  lands  nine- 
tenths  of  whose  inhabitants,  it  is  said,  held 
the  Reformers'  faith.  He  reversed  these 
numbers,  made  Bohemia,  Austria,  and  the 
adjacent  territories  Catholic,  and  decided 
that  the  Danube,  as  well  as  the  Rhine,  should 
flow  through  orthodox  fields.    The  Imperial- 


14G    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

ist  victory  at  Nordlingen  (1035)  avenged 
Breitenfeld,  but  left  Saxony  Lutheran. 

Richelieu  continued  the  war.  His  armies 
were  successful  in  Roussillon  and  Savoy;  his 
Swedish  mercenaries  invaded  Silesia.  The 
two  chief  Catholic  powers  were  brought  low 
by  a  Roman  Cardinal.  He  died  in  1G42; 
but  his  diplomacy  had  traced  the  lines  which 
in  1G48,  by  the  Peace  of  Westphalia,  de- 
termined for  one  hundred  and  forty  years 
the  balance  of  European  power.  France, 
allied  to  the  belligerent  disciples  of  Luther 
and  Calvin,  flung  Austria  back  upon  its 
hereditary  dominions,  curbed  Spain,  and  ful- 
filled the  ambitious  dreams  which  Francis  I. 
had  dreamt  in  vain,  of  a  Gallic  supremacy. 
Protestants  were  shut  out  from  every  prov- 
ince of  the  Habsburgs  except  Silesia;  the 
general  position  reverted  to  that  of  1G24. 
Propaganda  by  the  sword  was  given  up  on 
both  sides.  But  the  Reformed  Churches 
sank  under  the  jurisdiction  of  secular  princes, 
and  every  petty  Ca?sar  became  a  Pope. 

Innocent  X.  protested  against  the  principle 
thus  made  public  law — formulated,  curiously 
enough,  in  these  very  years  by  Ilobbes  in 
his  "Leviathan  "  — and  Innocent's  protesl, 
sa vs  Lord  Aelon,   "is  one  of   the  glories  of 


ESCORIAL  TO  VERSAILLES        147 

the  Papacy."  It  was  a  pica  for  liberty  of 
conscience  against  "an  ecclesiastical  author- 
ity more  arbitrary  than  the  Pope  had  ever 
possessed."  The  Treaty  bears  date  October 
24,  1048.  In  effect  it  dissolved  the  Empire. 
It  brought  France  to  the  Rhine.  It  secular- 
ized a  large  portion  of  ecclesiastical  territory. 
By  recognizing  the  independence  of  Switzer- 
land and  the  United  Provinces  it  acknowl- 
edged what  have  since  been  termed  "accom- 
plished facts."  Three  "confessions,"  or 
religious  creeds,  now  divided  Western  Europe, 
of  which  the  Catholic  faith  was  only  one.  The 
Roman  Curia,  looked  upon  as  a  foreign  power 
in  Germany,  excluded  from  interference  in 
Spain  by  the  Inquisition,  and  held  at  a  dis- 
tance by  Mazarin  no  less  than  by  Richelieu, 
could  no  longer  issue  decrees  which  carried  a 
political  importance.  The  interdict,  launched 
by  Paul  V.  against  Venice  in  1G05,  was  a 
failure  and  never  repeated.  The  deposing 
power  was  extinct.  Brandenburg,  founded 
as  a  secular  State  by  an  heretical  Grand 
Master  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  was  growing 
up  to  be  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia  in  1701. 


148    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Section  II 
the  "great  king,"  LOUIS  xiv.   (1643-1715) 

But  few  coincidences  are  more  remarkable 
than  that  which  links  October  24,  1648,  with 
January  30,  1649.  German  Protestants  were 
yielding  submission  to  the  civil  magistrate 
at  the  moment  when  English  Puritans  were 
beheading  their  King  in  front  of  Whitehall. 
At  Naseby  the  Ironsides  trained  by  Cromwell 
had  dashed  to  pieces  the  old  Csesarism, 
which  claimed  to  establish,  and  thereby  to 
enslave,  religion.  On  that  stricken  field  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  was  born.  In 
all  countries,  too,  where  penal  legislation 
pressed  hard  on  Catholics,  an  escape  was 
sought.  Jesuit  arguments  anticipated  the 
Whig  limits  to  State  authority;  while  in 
Maryland  the  famous  Act  of  Toleration, 
likewise  drawn  up  in  1649,  announced  that 
Catholics  and  Protestants  could  live  in  peace 
under  the  same  laws.  This  was  not  a  Puritan 
measure  but  was  due  to  Lord  Baltimore, 
whose  father  had  joined  the  Roman  Church. 
lie  "was  the  first,"  says  Bancroft,  "to  make 
religious  freedom  the  basis  of  the  State." 

Religious  unity  was  declared  to  be  impos- 
sible by  the  Acts  of  Westphalia.     Cromwell 


LOUIS  XIV.  149 

stood  for  Independence  against  Presbyteri- 
ans after  he  had  smitten  the  head  of  the 
Anglican  Establishment.  He  aimed  at  oli- 
garchy, but  the  event  was  other  than  he  in- 
tended. To  cite  the  Greek  illustration,  every 
chief  would  assign  the  first  place  to  himself; 
but  all  gave  the  second  to  Themistocles.  In- 
nocent X.  decried  the  axiom,  "Whosoever 
has  the  land  shall  write  the  creed."  Jeremy 
Taylor,  in  hiding  as  a  loyal  Anglican,  com- 
posed his  defence  of  the  "Liberty  of  Prophesy- 
ing." Milton  in  "Areopagitica"  lifted  the 
freedom  of  the  press  to  an  epic  grandeur. 
Grotius  had  discovered,  not  without  help  of 
St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  that  there  is  a  Higher 
Law,  and  that  government  implies  a  con- 
tract between  ruler  and  subjects.  On  the 
other  side  were  Richelieu,  Hobbes,  Bossuet, 
Louis  XIV.  The  debate  which  was  thus 
opened  will  carry  us  down  to  the  American 
and  the  French  Revolutions,  both  founded 
on  the  doctrine  of  responsible  authority  and 
the  right  of  resistance  to  its  unjust  use. 

In  France  it  was  a  question  of  the  Crown. 
Cardinal  Bellarmine's  volume,  defending  the 
high  Papal  view  of  jurisdiction  over  sover- 
eigns, was  burnt  in  1G10  by  order  of  the 
Parlement  of  Paris.    The  answer  which  Sua- 


150    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

rez  wrote  to  James  I.'s  exaltation  of  his  royal 
prerogatives  met  with  a  similar  fate  in  1014. 
"They  saw,"  observes  Lecky  of  these  and 
like-minded  Jesuits,  "that  a  great  future 
was  in  store  for  the  people,  and  they  laboured 
with  a  zeal  that  will  secure  them  everlasting 
honour  to  hasten  and  direct  the  emanci- 
pation." It  was  not  now  the  Supreme  Pon- 
tiff only,  but  the  nation,  that  might  depose 
and  execute  a  tyrannical  sovereign.  The 
Jesuits  maintained  these  startling  doctrines, 
of  course,  as  weapons  to  pull  down  heretical 
Tudors,  or  the  faithless  Valois,  Henry  III., 
or  Henry  of  Navarre,  not  yet  converted. 
But  others  besides  the  outspoken  Mariana 
taught  them  from  Spanish  chairs  of  theology 
and  in  Rome.  It  was  from  Suarez  imme- 
diately that  Grotius,  the  Dutch  Arminian, 
drew  his  own  general  principles.  On  the 
other  hand,  French  jurists  could  point  to 
the  murder  of  these  two  French  kings  as  a 
dreadful  comment  on  theories  of  tyrannicide. 
Between  the  social  contract  and  the  divine 
indefeasible  right  of  their  glorious  monarchy 
no  reconciliation  seemed  to  them  possible. 

These  differences  had  broken  into  violent 
discussions  at  the  States-General  of  1011, 
when   the  anti-regal  tractate  of  Suarez  was 


LOUIS  XIV.  151 

committed  to  the  flames.  Crown  lawyers 
prepared  the  way  for  a  Jansenist  revolt 
against  Jesuit  direction,  though  as  yet  Jan- 
senism was  not.  Later  on,  there  was  coming 
a  strange,  three-cornered  alliance  of  Royalist, 
Gallican,  and  Port  Royal,  each  attacking 
the  Great  Company  from  a  special  point  of 
view,  and  at  last  effecting  its  overthrow. 
But  the  Regalists  under  captains  like  Charles 
du  Moulin  led  the  charge,  although  as  early 
as  1554  the  Sorbonne  had  condemned  cer- 
tain Jesuit  propositions.  In  1594  they  were 
banished  the  kingdom.  Henry  IV.  gave 
them  leave  to  return.  While  Richelieu  lived 
he  was  master,  and  wielded  the  two  swords 
like  any  Pope.  The  Roman  authorities 
tolerated  an  imperium  in  imperio  which 
they  were  unable  to  subdue;  moreover 
the  Cardinal  was  undoubtedly  zealous  for 
religion,  though  with  political  by-ends. 

The  Jansenist  controversy,  which  Riche- 
lieu endeavoured  to  stifle  at  its  birth  by 
imprisoning  that  gloomy  genius,  St.  Cyran, 
in  Vincennes,  is  usually  dated  from  1G40.  Its 
effect  was  to  display  the  Papal  prerogative  of 
determining  dogma,  without  appeal  to  Coun- 
cil or  hierarchy,  on  the  widest  of  theatres. 
When   Innocent   X.   proscribed   the  famous 


152   PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

"Five  Propositions,"  which  represented  as 
in  a  scientific  formula  the  doctrine  of  Jansen 
(consigned  to  his  great  volume  the  "August- 
inus "),  France  and  Catholic  Christendom 
bowed  to  the  ruling.  The  Vatican  decrees 
of  1870  were  anticipated  by  these  acts;  nor 
did  the  French  bishops  venture  to  complain. 

According  to  a  picturesque  figure,  the 
Reformation  had  created  within  the  Church 
a  state  of  siege.  Power  was  by  necessity 
centred  in  the  Pope's  hands,  so  that  while 
his  temporal  jurisdiction  was  falling  away,  his 
teaching  and  administrative  functions  grew 
more  active  than  ever.  Hence  the  defeat 
of  Port  Royal.  Though  betraying  affini- 
ties of  doctrine  and  temper  with  Calvin — ■ 
whose  logic  must  always  impress  the  minds 
of  Frenchmen — Port  Royal  would  never 
have  dared  to  turn  Huguenot.  Freedom, 
religious  or  political,  was  unknown  to  the  age 
of  Louis  XIV.  But,  in  any  case,  the  Council 
of  Trent  had  shown  that  it  was  impossible  to 
defend  the  ancient  creed  while  disobeying 
that  Papal  authority  in  which,  as  Bellarmine 
argued,  the  sum  of  it  was  contained. 

Port  Royal,  therefore,  cast  aside  all  that  the 
Pope  rejected;  but  distinguishing  between 
doctrine  and  fact,   it  was   eager   to  remove 


LOUIS  XIV.  153 

St.  Cyran,  its  late  director,  beyond  the  sus- 
picion of  formal  Jansenism.  The  distinction 
was  not  allowed  and  the  famous  Abbey  be- 
came a  desolation.  Though  Pascal,  its  one 
man  of  genius  (whom  it  did  not  train),  as- 
sumed with  magnificent  strategy  the  offensive 
against  the  Society  of  Jesus,  bringing  it  into 
the  line  of  fire,  he  could  not  save  a  cloister 
which  the  King  hated  because  it  drew  away 
from  him  the  eyes  of  Paris,  and  which  Bossuet 
condemned  for  standing  out  when  authority 
required  it  to  submit.  In  the  historical  per- 
spective we  recognize  that  if  the  "solitaries" 
had  not  been  put  down  the  Church  of  a  middle 
way  would  have  arisen  in  France,  anti-Ro- 
man from  the  southern  point  of  view,  anti- 
Protestant  from  the  northern.  Louis  and 
Bossuet  were  Gallican  according  to  the  for- 
mula of  Pisa,  Constance,  Basle — French 
Councils  which  would  fain  have  made  the 
Pope  a  constitutional  monarch,  while  the 
King  was  to  be  absolute.  But  Louis  XIV. 
could  not  have  grasped  the  spiritual  sense  of 
St.  Cyran;  nor  had  the  incomparable  orator  of 
Meaux  any  sympathy  for  a  doctrine  which  he 
must  have  thought  less  human  than  the  Gos- 
pel, and  less  coherent  than  Calvinism.  Bos- 
suet was  an  Augustinian,  not  a  Jansenist. 


154    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

Louis  XIV.,  during  his  reign  of  seventy- 
two  years  (1643-1715),  arrogated  to  himself  a 
dominion  over  Church  and  State  like  that  of 
Philip  II.,  to  whose  unique  position  among 
monarchs  he  succeeded.  He  was  at  once  the 
protector  of  Catholic  faith  at  home  and 
abroad,  the  persecutor  of  Huguenots,  the  trial 
and  terror  of  the  Holy  See.  Ill-instructed, 
dissolute,  worshipping  himself  as  others  wor- 
shipped him,  the  "Great  King"  had  wit 
enough  to  discern  capacity  and  to  reward 
merit.  His  inheritance  from  the  age  of 
Louis  XIII.  gave  to  the  first  half  of  his  reign 
a  lustre  which  was  tarnished  by  defeat,  and 
misfortune  in  the  second.  But  Catholic 
learning,  eloquence,  devotion — its  benevo- 
lent enterprises  and  missionary  zeal,  lent  to 
the  Church  of  France,  under  the  greatest  of 
the  Bourbons,  a  distinction  which  none  other 
could  rival.  It  had  saints  of  charity  like 
Vincent  de  Paul;  preachers  and  apologists 
like  Bossuct  and  Fenclon;  the  lonely  splen- 
dour of  Pascal,  the  pathos  and  harmonies  of 
Racine.  Even  Port  Royal,  which  Roman 
orthodoxy  cannot  approve,  adds  to  the  glory 
of  the  days  of  Louis  by  it>  austere  unworldli- 
ncss,  its  erudition — witness  the  names  of 
Tillemont  and  Sacy — its  proud  re^stance  to 
Kins  and  Council. 


LOUIS  XIV.  155 

But  Dollinger  has  laid  bare  the  vice  of 
that  Gallican  system  which  for  sixty  years 
and  more  set  no  bounds,  short  of  manifest 
heresy,  to  royal  despotism.  If  passive  obe- 
dience carried  to  the  extreme  was  a  badge 
of  Anglicans  at  this  time,  so  was  it  of  Bossuet 
and  the  contemporary  divines  across  the 
Channel,  who  did  not  perceive  that  they 
were  applauding  the  wicked  principles  of 
Westphalia  condemned  by  the  Pope.  For 
if  it  was  chiefly  the  sovereign's  will  on  which 
these  Gallicans  relied  to  destroy  Port  Royal, 
and  if  by  it  they  justified  the  Revocation  of 
the  Edict  of  Nantes,  how  could  their  suc- 
cessors argue  against  the  absolute  State  which 
exiled  the  clergy  and  suppressed  the  religious 
orders?  From  1C85  to  1789  the  fatal  logic 
that  deduces  anti-clericalism  as  a  consequence 
of  court-idolatry  at  Versailles  moves  on  step 
by  step.  The  persons  of  the  drama  exchange 
parts;  the  plot  remains  the  same. 

It  was  not,  therefore,  by  accident  that 
Louis,  in  the  same  years  when  he  meditated 
the  forced  conversion  or  banishment  of  his 
Huguenot  subjects  (as  truly  French  as  any 
Bourbon),  found  himself  at  enmity  with  the 
Holy  See.  But  the  moment  proved  decisive 
of  many  things.     Looking  back  we  observe 


156    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

how  Charles  II.,  purchased  by  French  money, 
had  so  irritated  and  alarmed  Protestant 
England  that  an  imaginary  Popish  Plot  drove 
the  nation  mad.  This  was  to  be  followed 
up  by  the  double  intrigues  of  Versailles,  which 
Barillon  conducted  in  London.  They  were 
designed  to  weaken  English  power,  and  only 
in  the  second  place  to  forward  the  progress 
of  Catholicism.  James  II.  was  in  the  eyes 
of  Frenchmen  a  tributary  viceroy  of  the 
"Grand  Monarque,"  and  England  a  subject 
province. 

Now  in  St.  Peter's  chair  from  1G76  to  1G89 
sat  Innocent  XL,  a  saintly,  reforming  Pontiff. 
He  dreaded  the  overweening  pretensions  of 
which  Louis  had  given  proofs  no  less  in  sacred 
than  in  secular  departments.  Like  his  pred- 
ecessors he  clung  to  the  balance  of  power, 
alone  adapted,  since  the  Popes  could  no  longer 
depose  Kings,  to  secure  the  possessions  of 
the  Roman  Church  and  his  own  independence. 
Louis  XIV.  had  extended,  with  a  haughty 
indifference  to  the  Curia,  his  so-called  "regal 
rights"  over  the  property  of  vacant  bishop- 
rics. Innocent  remonstrated  to  no  purpose, 
as  Clement  X.  had  done  before  him.  A 
succession  of  able  writers,  high  prelates 
among   them,   Richer,   De   Marca,   Launoy, 


LOUIS  XIV.  157 

Dupin,  had  published  abroad  or  were  still 
expounding  the  doctrine  of  a  royal  supremacy 
not  much  less  limited  than  was  maintained 
by  Hooker  and  Andre wes.  The  French 
bishops  obeyed  their  King  with  trembling. 
Louis,  who  knew  nothing  of  theology,  con- 
voked them  to  Paris  in  1682.  This  Gallican 
assembly  was  intended  to  resume  the  attitude 
of  Constance  and  to  win  for  itself  the  author- 
ity of  a  General  Council.  Bossuet,  the  last  of 
the  Church  doctors,  profoundly  Catholic, 
but  misled  by  the  philosophy  of  Hobbes, 
which  on  this  point  he  took  to  be  scriptural, 
paid  an  excessive  deference  to  the  King, 
whom  he  should  have  warned  against  med- 
dling with  matters  too  high  for  him.  A 
schism  appeared  to  be  imminent,  and  the 
Bishop  of  Meaux  preached  his  masterpiece  of 
rhetoric  on  the  "Unity  of  the  Church," 
exalting  Papal  claims,  but  demanding  as  if  a 
novelty  that  the  Holy  See  should  govern  by 
Canon  Law.  The  bishops  subscribed  to  the 
"Four  Articles,"  which  rejected  utterly  the 
Pope's  power  in  temporals  outside  his  own 
states,  and  denied  that  lie  was  infallible  ex 
cathedra.  Louis  imposed  this  declaration 
on  the  whole  French  clergy,  and  even  the 
Jesuits    submitted    under    constraint.      Gal- 


158    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

lican  theology  and  Regalist  law  had  joined 
hands.  But  the  strife  was  not  ended.  Louis 
would  yet  discover,  in  the  apt  words  of 
Macaulay,  that  "having  alienated  one  great 
section  of  Christendom  by  persecuting  the 
Huguenots,  he  alienated  another  by  insulting 
the  Holy  See." 

Thanks  to  these  opposed  but  not  unseason- 
able blunders  on  the  part  of  Louis,  the  Vatican 
at  this  critical  turn  in  affairs  escaped  a  grave 
calamity.  "Whoever  persecuted  the  French 
Calvinists,  it  was  not  Innocent  XL,  for  he 
raised  his  voice  against  "dragooning"  them 
by  "armed  apostles,"  into  a  feigned  accept- 
ance of  beliefs  which  they  rejected  in  their 
hearts.  He  is  likewise  happily  free  from  a 
share  in  the  procedure,  as  disastrous  as  it  was 
short-sighted,  of  James  II.  James,  a  devout 
profligate,  had  imbibed  Gallican  ideas,  which 
the  crafty  Barillon  did  his  utmost  to  encour- 
age. And  by  this  dream  of  royal  omnipotence 
the  King  drove  Tory  Oxford  and  Protestant 
England  to  put  in  practice  the  Jesuit  principle 
of  resistance,  upheld  by  Suarez  against 
James's  own  grandfather.  The  situation  had 
its  ironies  for  observant  spectators.  Innocent 
counselled  prudence  and  moderation.  lie 
declined  to  make  the  Jesuit  Father  Petre  a 


LOUIS  XIV.  159 

Cardinal.  His  representative  at  the  court  of 
St.  James's,  Count  d'Adda,  submitted  with 
reluctance  to  public  honours  which  would 
only  vex  and  scandalize  a  Protestant  nation. 
And  the  insolent  policy  of  Louis  compelled 
the  Holy  See,  while  supporting  ecclesiastical 
immunities  on  the  Rhine,  to  strengthen  the 
hands  of  William  of  Orange.  William  broke 
his  promise  to  the  Vatican  of  toleration  for 
Catholics  when  Innocent  had  passed  away. 
But  even  so  late  as  1697  feeling  in  Rome 
continued  to  be  anti-Jacobite.  To  such  unex- 
pected consequences  did  the  "Four  Articles" 
lead.  Once  more  a  French  King  ruined  the 
fortunes  of  militant  Catholicism,  as  a  French 
Cardinal  had  ruined  them  in  the  Thirty 
Years'  War. 

It  was  characteristic  of  Louis  XIV.  that  he 
trampled  on  the  helpless.  Three  times  he 
had  ostentatiously  insulted  the  Popes  in  their 
own  capital.  Nevertheless,  over  those  Four 
Articles  he  was  beaten  into  submission. 
Alexander  VIII.  condemned  them  formally 
in  1691.  Innocent  XII.,  an  admirable  pontiff, 
whom  our  English  poet,  Browning,  has 
analysed  after  his  peculiar  fashion  in  "The 
Ring  and  the  Book,"  dictated  to  the  French 
bishops  an  act  of  contrition  which  their  royal 


160    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

master  permitted  them  to  sign  in  1697. 
Bossuet,  doomed  to  weave  and  unweave  the 
Penelope-web  of  a  "Defence  of  1682"  never 
entirely  to  his  mind,  left  it  in  manuscript, 
crying  "Abeat  quo  libuerit,"  let  the  Declara- 
tion take  care  of  itself.  From  the  Roman 
point  of  view  this  sublime  genius  had  betrayed 
his  fellow-clergy  into  the  "servitudes  of  the 
Gallican  Church,"  as  Fleury,  once  their  advo- 
cate, bitterly  called  them.  Xoble  and  grave 
as  a  prophetic  teacher  when  he  surveys  the 
truths  of  religion,  but  like  a  chained  eagle  in 
the  court  of  Versailles,  Bossuet  illustrates 
its  grandeur  and  its  fall.  lie  it  is  in  effect 
that  utters  the  funeral  oration  of  Louis 
Quatorze;  and  he  passes  with  his  King. 

His  rival,  his  successor,  was  Fenelon,  Arch- 
bishop and  Duke  of  Cambray,  whose  "Tele- 
maque"  is  a  satire  on  absolute  monarchy, 
and  his  submission  to  Rome  the  severest 
censure  on  the  Articles  of  1682.  Fenelon  is 
unmistakably  the  first  French  "ultramon- 
tane," as  we  understand  the  word.  lie  is 
also  the  first  French  democrat,  of  the  haughty 
Mirabeau  type,  strong  on  the  popular  side 
because  he  has  a  quarrel  with  Versailles.  He 
stands  on  the  threshold  of  a  new  century,  and 
hails  the  dawn  of  lidit  and  freedom.     There 


LOUIS   XIV.  161 

was  coming  indeed  a  false  dawn  before  the 
true.  Those  last  days  of  Fenelon  and 
Massillon  witnessed  the  early  unripe  essays 
of  Voltaire  (1694-1778)  in  prose  and  rhyme; 
while  the  huge  volumes  of  Saint-Simon's 
"Memoirs"  were  growing  in  secret,  which 
contain  in  his  enormous  style  the  epitaph 
of  old  France; — of  its  King,  its  nobles,  its 
Churchmen,  its  light  ladies,  its  decadent  yet 
still  not  white-livered  chivalry.  We  turn 
back  to  consider  the  course  of  those  hundred 
and  twenty  years  past — the  Armada  that  was 
blown  to  all  the  winds  of  heaven,  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  the  Puritan  Revolt,  the  double 
failure  of  Louis  and  James  which  bears  in 
England  the  title  of  a  Revolution,  and  is 
dated  1G88.  What  does  it  all  portend?  A 
recent  philosophic  estimate  assures  us  that 
these  were  steps  in  a  process  which  has  taken 
from  the  "modern  State"  its  ascendancy  over 
conscience,  and  shown  it  to  be  incompetent 
where  the  Christian  faith  is  concerned.  How, 
without  legal  enactment,  society  was  to 
be  kept  in  possession  of  the  greatest  of  all 
treasures,  that  process  did  not  show.  It 
made  for  freedom,  but  did  it  not  also  make 
for  anarchy?  Such  was  the  problem  which 
the  advancing  years  of  the  eighteenth  century 
were  called  upon  to  resolve. 


CHAPTER  V 

from  louis  xiv.  to  the  revolution  (1715- 
1789.  rousseau,  "the  social  cox- 
tract";  burke,  "ox  reconciliation 
with  America") 

A  century  of  enlightenment  or  dissolution, 
the  eighteenth  has  been  also  termed  the  "Age 
of  Reason."  When  it  began  with  its  unneces- 
sary war  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  Europe 
south  of  Alps  and  Pyrenees  had  exhausted 
the  mental  vigour  which  produced  the  Renais- 
sance, as  well  as  the  ardour  of  crusading 
whereby  Castile  and  Aragon  had  in  a  short 
generation  acquired  the  Empire  now  crum- 
bling to  pieces.  The  Turk  was  making  his 
last  attempt  on  Christendom.  Russia  sud- 
denly filled  the  eastern  sky  as  a  Colossus 
armed  for  battle  against  the  Crescent.  In 
this  one  direction  the  Papacy,  faithful  to  a 
tradition  seven  hundred  years  old,  was 
deservedly  a  victor.  St.  Pius  V.,  the  soul  of 
the  expedition,  had  furnished  to  the  hero, 
Don  John  of  Austria,  no  small  contingent  of 

102 


TO  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION   163 

those  galleys  with  which  near  the  Gulf  of 
Lepanto  he  shattered  the  Turkish  fleet  and 
swept  it  from  Ionian  waters,  October  7,  1571. 
From  that  day  the  naval  power  of  the 
Moslems  declined.  In  1G0G  Austria  con- 
cluded an  honourable  peace  with  Ahmed  I., 
which  indicated  that  the  mighty  empire  of 
Islam  had  lost  its  long-enduring  vital  force. 
Yet  Poland  was  compelled  to  pay  tribute  in 
1672,  and  eleven  years  later  Hungarian  Prot- 
estants brought  up  a  great  Turkish  army  to 
the  walls  of  Vienna.  The  Pope,  Innocent  XL, 
did  his  utmost  to  aid  the  Christian  cause, 
and  John  Sobieski,  "sent  from  God,"  raised 
the  siege.  A  war  of  twenty  years  followed 
with  varying  success;  but  in  1G97  Prince 
Eugene  broke  the  infidel  ranks  at  Zenta  and 
completely  routed  them.  It  will  be  observed 
that  France  and  England  almost  always 
behaved  as  friends  of  the  Turk.  The  Peace 
of  Carlowitz,  January,  1609,  checked  the 
Sultan's  aggressive  power;  he  entered  on 
compulsion  the  European  system  of  politics; 
and  in  Holy  Russia,  with  its  pride  of  faith 
and  lust  of  conquest,  he  found  his  waning 
strength  overmatched. 

Eight  Popes,  from  Clement  XL,  elected  in 
November,  1700,  to  Pius  VI.,  dying  in  exile 


164    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

at  Valence,  August  29,  1799,  fill  the  years  of 
which  every  Catholic  will  say  that  he  has 
no  pleasure  in  them.  Years  when  the  spirit 
which  had  animated  Christians  to  such  lofty 
deeds  was  everywhere  yielding  before  its 
assailants.  After  the  Treaty  of  Westphalia, 
the  bounds  were  fixed  between  Catholics  and 
Reformers  as  they  have  since  remained. 
Looking  at  the  map  of  Europe,  we  are  struck 
by  observing  that  the  limits  which  the  Ro- 
man Church  preserved  very  nearly  coincide 
with  those  of  the  Western  Empire,  at  the  time 
that  Theodosius  divided  East  and  West  (395). 
North  and  east  of  Danube,  Main,  and  Rhine 
the  Catholic  dominion  is  met  by  peoples  whom 
that  Empire  never  held  or  imperfectly  sub- 
dued. But  beyond  its  range  Poland  on  one 
side,  Ireland  on  the  other,  furnish  examples 
of  the  Roman  faith,  enthusiastically  main- 
tained under  pressure  from  the  alien  Govern- 
ments of  Moscow  or  London.  Across  the 
Atlantic,  Rome  may  point  to  the  whole 
South  American  continent,  to  the  Central- 
States,  Mexico,  and  French  Canada  as  her 
own.  She  has  called  a  new  world  into  being 
to  repair  the  losses  inflicted  on  Catholicism  in 
the  old.  Her  missionaries  have  penetrated 
into  India,   converted  multitudes  in  Japan, 


TO  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION   1G5 

found  a  welcome  at  the  Court  of  Peking. 
These  were,  in  largest  measure,  trophies  of  the 
heroism  which  has  at  all  times  marked  Jesuit 
enterprise  among  the  heathen.  St.  Francis 
Xavier,  a  Christian  Alexander,  meditated  the 
conquest  of  Farther  Asia,  and  left  to  his  suc- 
cessors a  promising  empire,  which  Japanese 
persecution,  Dutch  intrigue,  and  the  opposi- 
tion of  other  Catholics  hindered  from  its  due 
expansion.  But  the  pride  of  the  Great  Com- 
pany was  Paraguay,  civilized  and  defended 
as  an  Indian  Paradise  by  these  "black- 
robes,"  who  renewed  on  their  own  principles 
a  polity  resembling  in  more  than  one  feature 
the  social  institutions  which  Pizarro  found 
existing  under  the  Incas  of  Peru. 

And  now,  when  Louis  XIV.  had  acquired 
for  his  house  the  throne  of  Spain,  supplanting 
the  Habsburgs,  and  securing  to  the  Bourbons 
a  masterdom  over  the  Latin  nations,  there  was 
approaching  a  universal  change  which  con- 
stituted, as  Macaulay  reckons  it,  "the  fourth 
great  peril  of  the  Church  of  Rome."  On 
lines  not  similar  but  converging  the  attack 
was  directed,  by  Jansenist  lawyers,  philo- 
sophic thinkers,  and  the  party  of  letters  and 
fas] lion  called  Libertines. 

First  came  so  determined  a  recoil  from  the 
austerity  which  Louis  affected  after  his  mar- 


1G6    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

riage  with  Madame  de  Maintenon,  that  Lecky 
describes  it  as  a  "moral  chaos."  Such  was 
the  period  of  the  Regency,  illustrated  for  later 
ages  in  Saint-Simon's  "Memoirs" — a  picture 
to  frighten  and  appal.  It  was  an  era  closely 
imitating  that  of  Charles  II.,  but  adding  the 
touch  of  sacrilege  in  a  prelate  like  Cardinal 
Dubois,  who  disgraced  the  See  of  Cambray 
which  Fenelon  had  lately  adorned.  We 
may  fix  the  date  by  Montesquieu's  "Persian 
Letters,"  brilliant  and  corrupt,  appearing  in 
1722.  This  daring  mockery  of  Christian 
beliefs  occupies  the  same  place,  as  regards  the 
"Enlightenment,"  which  Luther's  "Baby- 
lonish Captivity"  holds  in  the  story  of  the 
Reformation.  It  is  a  prophecy  and  a  form  of 
strategy,  well  named  "persiflage."  Luther's 
weapon  was  vehement  satire,  descending  to 
coarseness.  The  weapon  of  the  "philo- 
sophes"  was  irony  which  spared  no  dogma, 
however  sacred.  All  along,  from  the  earliest 
period  when  literature  began  to  revive,  this 
temper  had  shown  what  it  could  achieve  in 
French  writings.  But  Rabelais  was  often 
grotesque,  Montaigne  was  archaic.  The 
scepticism  of  Charron  had  been  coloured  to 
resemble  Christian  humility.  And  though 
Descartes  is  justly  esteemed  the  Father  of 
Rational  ism,  he  professed  the  Catholic  creed. 


TO  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION   167 

But  his  creed  was  forgotten,  while  his 
method  formed  Spinoza,  Locke,  and  the 
whole  eighteenth  century. 

Since  Pascal  and  Moliere,  the  French 
language,  conscious  of  its  power  to  charm, 
to  explain,  to  persuade,  while  it  amused,  was 
fast  becoming  the  speech  of  cultivated  men 
and  women  all  over  Europe.  Not,  however, 
the  French  of  Bossuet,  but  the  French  of  Saint 
Evremond,  soon  to  be  sharpened  into  an 
edge  of  lightning  by  Voltaire.  Unbelief  had 
fashioned  a  tongue  marvellously  adapted  to 
the  task  it  set  itself  of  destructive  analysis. 
English  Deism  in  Locke  and  his  followers 
gave  the  ideas  which,  by  passing  into  lucid 
French  epigrams,  became  the  sovereign  com- 
monplaces on  which  laws  were  to  be  re- 
formed, schools  turned  to  seminaries  of 
propaganda,  the  clergy  put  to  shame,  the 
Church  annihilated.  By  opposing  Protestant 
objections  to  Catholic  dogma,  and  to  both  a 
Christianity  without  mysteries,  the  first  steps 
were  taken.  Religion  had  been  an  engine  of 
state;  reduced  to  a  superstition  or  a  senti- 
ment, how  could  it  survive  when  scientific 
investigation  disclosed  its  origin,  and  history 
narrated  its  abuses?  The  ''Encyclopaedia," 
or  sum  of  knowledge,  treated  Catholic  and 
Protestant  alike  with  transcendent  disdain. 


168    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

They  belonged  to  the  past,  they  destroyed 
one  another.  The  record  of  persecution 
condemned  them  both. 

Such  were  Voltaire's  tactics,  made  perfect 
in  a  long  career  of  reflection  and  subterfuge. 
His  hundred  volumes  contain  the  gospel  of 
"Enlightenment";  but,  though  a  prince 
among  unbelievers,  he  had  companions  not 
less  ardent  or  less  resolute,  in  all  ranks  of 
society.  Governments  adopted  large  portions 
of  the  new  faith,  many  years  before  it  touched 
the  people.  On  the  side  of  orthodoxy  no 
David  came  out  to  answer  the  challenge.  It 
is  remarkable  that  we  cannot  quote  one  single 
classic  in  French.  Spanish,  or  Italian,  belong- 
ing to  this  period  and  professing  to  defend 
Christianity,  after  the  death  of  Fenelon  till 
the  Revolution.  In  England,  writers  of 
eminence,  from  Butler  to  Paley,  answered 
the  Deists  and  silenced  them;  but  under 
Louis  XV.  the  thrice-miserable  disputes  con- 
cerning the  Bull  "Unigenitus"  of  Clement 
XL,  which  convulsed  Court  and  Parlement, 
and  which  ended  in  the  downfall  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus,  appear  to  have  absorbed  whatever 
intellectual  zeal  was  left  in  the  clergy.  It 
was  a  time  of  decadence  among  believers,  and 
of  assaults  upon  them  continually  growing 
in  boldness,  during  which  "acts  of  power," 


TO  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION   1C9 

feebly  attempted  from  above,  were  met 
with  defiance,  or  parried  by  connivance  of 
the  authorities  themselves. 

"Louis  XV.,"  wrote  in  his  secret  Memoirs 
the  Marquis  d'Argenson,  "has  not  known  how 
to  govern  as  a  tyrant  or  as  the  chief  of  a 
republic."  These  words  express  the  vacilla- 
ting policy  of  a  court  which  felt  already  the 
ground  trembling  beneath  it.  By  the  Consti- 
tution "Unigenitus,"  which  Louis  XIV.  ob- 
tained from  the  unwilling  Pope,  Clement  XL, 
in  1718,  it  was  intended  that  the  King  should 
be  enabled  to  scatter  the  remnants  of  Jansen- 
ism. But  Jansenism,  ceasing  to  be  a  definite 
heresy,  had  grown  into  a  temper  of  mind, 
rebellious  towards  Rome,  Gallican  and  dis- 
loyal, or  at  least  in  sympathy  republican. 
It  took  refuge  from  its  enemies  at  Versailles 
in  the  Parlement  of  Paris,  where  D'Argenson 
found  the  "leaders  of  this  revolution" 
which  he  saw  coming,  and  which  was  to  open 
with  "the  slaughter  of  priests  in  the  streets 
of  Paris."  In  1730  the  Papal  Bull  was  made 
a  law  of  the  land.  But  the  Parlement  (which 
we  must  not  confound  with  our  English 
institution  of  the  like  name)  resisted,  and 
got  itself  exiled  to  Pontoise,  to  Soissons. 
Church  and  State  lay  under  the  heel  of  a 
Madame    de    Pompadour,    whose    influence 


170    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

was  courted  by  virtuous  prelates,  such  as 
Cristophe  de  Beaumont,  Archbishop  of  Paris, 
and  by  austere  jurists,  while  she  wavered 
to  and  fro,  now  telling  the  Archbishop  that 
the  Jesuits  ought  to  be  suppressed  as  a 
"scourge  to  Kings,"  and  again,  when  the 
mood  of  repentance  took  her,  choosing  a 
Jesuit  confessor.  To  record  ignominies  of 
this  kind  is  humiliation  enough. 

The  Parlement  won  its  great  victory  over 
the  Jesuits  after  1757,  when  Damien  made 
his  insane  attempt  on  King  Louis.  Rumour 
falsely  charged  both  religious  parties  with 
Damien's  guilt.  The  public  conscience  felt 
a  shock;  but  it  was  the  Society  of  Jesus  that 
paid  the  penalty.  Toulouse  and  Paris  joined 
against  them,  and  their  standard  book  of 
moral  theology,  "Busenbaum,"  was  burnt 
by  the  public  executioner,  on  the  ground  that 
it  made  the  Pope  superior  to  princes  and 
appeared  to  countenance  assassination.  In 
brief,  the  Jesuits  were  now  to  suffer  destruc- 
tion as  Ul tramontanes,  democrats,  and  regi- 
cides. Like  the  Christians  as  described  in 
Tacitus,  they  were  called  "enemies  of  the 
human  race."  This  was  the  Jesuit  legend,  in 
which  serious  men  have  professed  lo  believe, 
and  which  has  gone  the  round  of  the  world. 

From   Portugal,   decrepit  since  its  heroic 


TO  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION   171 

adventures  in  the  East,  the  first  blow  came. 
We  should  fix  clearly  in  our  minds  that  the 
Society  of  Jesus  formed  the  Old  Guard  of  a 
religion  which  these  Latin  States  had  pro- 
tected by  fire  and  sword  against  Mohammed, 
against  Luther,  and  that  their  Governments 
knew  this  well.  Moreover,  it  was  impossible 
to  dissolve  the  Society  without  using  violence, 
moral  and  even  physical,  towards  the  Pope 
whose  chosen  instrument  it  had  ever  been. 
The  English  parallel  of  Charles  I.  and  Straf- 
ford corresponds  exactly  to  the  situation. 
But  Strafford  had  some  kind  of  trial,  though 
his  judgment  was  decided  by  attainder,  not 
upon  evidence.  The  Jesuits  underwent  ban- 
ishment, confiscation,  dishonour,  and  dissolu- 
tion without  trial,  or  definite  charges,  or 
opportunity  of  self-defence.  The  argument 
of  lawyer  St.  John,  pleading  for  Strafford's 
doom,  would  have  mightily  persuaded  Pombal 
and  Aranda,  "It  was  never  accounted  either 
cruelty  or  foul  play  to  knock  foxes  and  wolves 
on  the  head  as  they  can  be  found,  because 
they  be  beasts  of  prey."  As  Clarendon 
remarks  of  the  earlier  injustice,  "the  law 
and  the  humanity  were  alike." 

The  Bourbons  destroyed  the  Jesuits,  and 
were  themselves  destroyed  in  turn  by  the 
forces  which  they  had  let  loose.    Their  chief 


172    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

ministers,  and  Pombal  who  set  the  example  at 
Lisbon,  belonged  to  a  new  class,  fiercely 
anti-clerical,  inspired  by  "philosophy,"  by 
the  regalist  conception  of  absolute  power. 
Such  were  Choiseul  in  France,  Aranda  at 
Madrid,  Tanucci  at  Naples.  Liberty  of  the 
subject  was  to  all  of  them  an  unknown 
idea,  voluntary  association  an  act  of  treason. 
But  they  justified  their  lawless  proceedings 
under  the  specious  popular  terms  of  humanity, 
freedom,  and  light.  As  Damien's  attempt 
on  the  King  proved  the  beginning  of  sorrows 
to  French  Jesuits,  so  did  a  like  assault  on 
Joseph  of  Portugal,  September,  1758,  enable 
his  minister,  Pombal,  to  complete  the  work 
already  in  hand,  by  which  he  intended  to  get 
rid  of  the  Society  in  that  kingdom.  They 
were  accused  of  regicide;  flung  on  board  a 
number  of  transports,  and  shipped  off  to 
the  Papal  States.  All  the  possessions  of 
the  Jesuits  were  seized;  Alalagrida,  though 
charged  with  complicity  in  the  attack  on 
King  Joseph,  was  put  to  death  not  as  a  traitor, 
but  as  a  heretic.  The  real  offence,  which 
Pombal  could  not  overlook,  was  that  in 
America  the  Jesuits  had  opposed  a  scheme 
by  which  their  Indian  converts  were  to  be 
forcibly  taken  from  the  ''Reductions''  and 
transferred  to  the  Portuguese  crown.     Para- 


TO  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION   173 

guay  fell  into  its  primitive  wildness;  the 
Society  perished  in  the  cause  of  civilization. 
Now  came  their  last  days  in  France. 
One  of  their  Fathers,  Lavalette,  had  engaged 
at  Martinique  in  business  on  a  large  scale, 
contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  Society,  if  not  to 
its  rules.  He  owed  three  millions  of  francs 
to  houses  at  Marseilles.  The  ships  which  were 
taking  his  merchandise  across  the  Atlantic 
fell  into  British  hands;  and  in  17G1  Lavalette 
was  declared  a  bankrupt  by  the  Grande 
Chambre  of  Paris.  The  General  of  the 
Jesuits,  Ricci,  declined  to  be  responsible. 
The  Parlement  examined  and  condemned  the 
Rule  of  the  Order;  burnt  many  more  of  their 
books;  and  compelled  Louis  XV.  to  ask  at 
Rome  for  a  French  Vicar  who  should  govern 
in  his  kingdom  without  consulting  the 
General.  lie  was  answered  by  Ricci  or 
Clement  XIII. ,  "Let  them  be  as  they  are,  or 
not  be  at  all."  The  second  alternative  was 
adopted.  On  August  6,  1702,  the  Parlement 
filing  one  hundred  and  sixty-three  Jesuit 
writings  into  the  flames  and  announced  that 
the  Society  was  dissolved  in  French  territory. 
Diderot  exulted;  Voltaire  pointed  to  the 
ruins  of  Port  Royal,  and  observed  pleasantly 
that  Pere  Letellier,  confessor  of  Louis  XIV., 
had  sown  where  Lavalette  reaped.    Shut  out 


174    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

from  their  own  schools,  reduced  to  beggary, 
driven  into  exile,  the  formal  decree  which 
made  an  end  of  them  was  published  by  Louis 
XV.  in  November,  1764.  Not  a  single  French 
Jesuit  underwent  trial;  their  suppression, 
with  its  attendant  robbery  and  suffering,  was 
an  act  of  legal  or  illegal  violence. 

Clement  XIII.  undertook  to  defend  the 
Society  in  the  Constitution  "Apostolicum," 
January,  1765.  It  led  by  reaction  to  the 
secret  ordinance  of  Charles  III.,  King  of 
Spain — composed  by  his  Prime  Minister, 
Aranda — which  on  April  2,  1767,  dissolved  the 
greatest  of  all  Spanish  religious  companies, 
and  drove  them  out  of  the  land  as  if  they  had 
been  Moors  or  Jews.  Five  thousand,  de- 
spatched to  Civita  Yecehia,  found  a  refuge  in 
Corsica,  not  until  they  had  endured  frightful 
miseries.  The  "philosophers"  were  not  sure 
that  to  destroy  the  Jesuits  would  be  entirely 
to  their  own  advantage.  D'Alemhert  wrote 
on  behalf  of  the  Society;  Voltaire  preferred 
the  Jesuit  fox  to  the  Jansenist  wolf.  The 
Parlement  of  Paris  had  burnt  many  anti- 
Christian  pamphlets;  and,  in  fact,  the  Civil 
Constitution  of  the  Clergy,  to  be  promulgated 
(hiring  the  Revolution,  was  due  to  Gallican 
authors,  not  to  the  "Enlightenment/'  Vol- 
taire detested  evcrv  shade  of  Calvinism;  he 


TO  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION   175 

had  begun  to  write  an  answer  to  Pascal's 
"Provincial  Letters";  and,  as  owing  much 
to  his  old  Jesuit  teachers,  he  felt  an  attach- 
ment to  the  Society  which  was  remarkable 
in  so  determined  an  enemy  of  their  faith. 

Rousseau,  the  lay  Calvin,  now  published 
his  "Emile,"  which  set  forth  a  secular 
programme  of  education,  and  the  "Social 
Contract,"  destined  to  be  the  cornerstone  of 
all  future  democracy,  as  understood  and 
practised  by  Jacobins.  No  defence  of  the 
Jesuit  doctrines  or  principles  appeared.  They 
took  their  fate  in  silence.  Even  at  Rome 
they  waited  with  apprehension  for  the  stroke 
which  might  be  dealt  by  the  hand  of  St. 
Peter's  successor.  Clement  XIII.  died  on 
the  eve  of  a  consistory,  where  the  question  of 
their  abolition  was  about  to  be  considered,  in 
17G9.  On  May  19,  Ganganelli,  a  Franciscan 
friar,  began  to  reign  in  his  stead. 

This  is  the  unhappy  and  much  criticized 
Clement  XIV.,  whose  brief  days  were  con- 
sumed in  a  struggle  for  and  against  the  Soci- 
ety. But  no  human  power  could  avert  their 
doom.  A  strange  sight  was  now  witnessed. 
The  Bourbon  powers  urged  their  instant  dis- 
solution as  an  alternative  to  worse  things. 
France  held  Avignon  and  proposed  to  incor- 
porate it  with  the  monarchy,  unless  Clement 


176    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

gave  in  without  delay.  He  was  able  to  rejoin 
that  Protestant  Governments  (he  meant 
Frederick  II.  of  Prussia)  and  the  Empress 
Catherine,  were  opposed  to  any  change  in 
the  religious  status  of  their  Catholic  subjects. 
But  on  July  22,  17G9,  Cardinal  Bernis, 
himself  no  pattern  of  priestly  decorum, 
representing  Louis  XV.,  made  a  formal 
demand  in  the  name  of  France,  Spain,  and 
Naples,  that  Home  should  abolish  the  Order. 
Bernis  offered  as  a  lure  the  restoration  of 
Avignon  and  Beneventum,  which  latter  had 
been  occupied  by  Naples.  The  Holy  See 
had  indeed  fallen  from  its  high  estate  when 
effete  Bourbon  princes  could  deal  with  it  so 
despitefully.  Clement  XIV.  might  have  com- 
pared his  position  to  that  of  Clement  V., 
except  in  so  far  as  he  had  made  no  bargain 
with  the  French  King.  And  the  Jesuits 
were,  at  least,  as  innocent  as  the  great  body 
of  the  Templars;  but  not  even  the  shadow 
of  a  particular  examination  was  vouchsafed  to 
them.  For  an  hour,  in  1771,  on  the  disgrace 
of  Choiseul,  men  thought  they  were  saved. 
D'Aiguillon,  grand-nephew  of  Richelieu,  suc- 
ceeded— by  grace  of  Madame  du  Barri,  as  the 
wits  of  Paris  cried  out  and  IVAiguillon  was 
no  Janscnist.  These  hopes  were  vain.  The 
Brief  of  dissolution,  submitted  to  Versailles 


TO  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION   177 

but  sent  back  unread  to  the  Spanish  Court, 
where  it  had  been  approved,  was  delivered  on 
the  evening  of  August  16, 1773,  to  the  General 
of  the  Jesuits  in  his  own  house  at  Rome. 
Ricci  was  taken  to  the  English  College,  and 
thence  to  St.  Angelo,  where  he  died  next  year. 
The  Society,  as  a  religious  corporation,  had 
ceased  to  exist. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  remark  that  the 
Brief  "Dominus  ac  Redemptor,"  of  July  21, 
1773,  by  which  this  momentous  transaction 
was  formally  concluded,  is  not  in  any  sense,  on 
Catholic  principles,  dogmatic  or  infallible.  It 
gave  effect  to  a  measure  of  high  policy,  done 
by  Clement  XIV.  as  ruler  of  the  Church  and 
on  motives  of  interest,  not  of  doctrine.  That 
such  a  measure  lay  within  the  Papal  com- 
petence, on  which  religious  orders  depend  for 
approval,  has  never  been  questioned.  It  did 
not,  however,  imply  that  the  Holy  See  with- 
drew from  the  teaching  of  former  Jesuits  any 
favour  bestowed;  and  their  remarkable  at- 
tempt to  substitute  for  the  severe  systems  of 
Aquinas  or  Augustine  the  milder  view  which 
Molina  and  his  school  defended,  was  per- 
mitted still.  The  shafts  of  Pascal  had  pierced 
a  too-indulgent  morality,  not  peculiar  to  those 
individual  Jesuits  who  maintained  it,  nor  of 
their    invention.      Pope    Innocent    XI.    had 


178    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

condemned  propositions  that  relaxed  the  fibres 
of  Christian  ethics.  But  the  Jesuit  system,  as 
a  whole,  was  renewed  by  St.  Alfonso  dei 
Liguori  during  the  years  which  we  are  now 
describing,  and  the  fact  signifies  much.  As 
a  school  of  theology  and  morals,  the  Company 
of  Jesus  underwent  no  censure  from  Rome. 
It  was  not  condemned  but  dissolved. 

The  circumstances  which  attended  its  disso- 
lution prove  that  Clement  XIV.  acted  under 
extreme  pressure  from  the  Church's  enemies. 
The  terms  of  his  preamble,  which  recites  how 
complaints  and  controversies  had  waited  on 
the  steps  of  the  Society  from  its  first  days, 
are  deliberately  chosen,  so  as  to  avoid  a 
judgment  on  the  merits.  The  Order  was  to 
be  sacrificed  that  peace  in  the  Church  might 
be  restored.  Cardinal  Bernis  considered  the 
Brief  "as  lenient  as  possible  towards  the 
Jesuits."  They  were  gently  dealt  with; 
yet  not  unfairly  they  claimed  some  of  the 
honours  of  martyrdom.  In  Prussia  and 
Russia,  where  the  Papal  decree  was  never 
legally  published,  they  found  protection  and 
continued  to  exist,  not  without  such  approval 
as  the  Holy  Sec  could  venture  to  give.  This 
has  been  made  a  reproach  to  the  Fathers; 
but  if  they  took  advantage  of  technical  points 
and  tacit  understandings,  who  shall  be  hard 


THE  AMERICAN  STATES  179 

on  them?  Nothing  was  more  evident  than 
that  the  Holy  See  would  reinstate  them  as  an 
order  on  the  first  opportunity  given.  The 
Silesian  Jesuits  elected  a  Vicar-general;  those 
in  White  Russia  did  the  same  in  1782.  Though 
smitten,  as  it  would  seem,  unto  death,  a  future 
was  in  store  for  the  Society;  but  another 
world-wide  movement  must  avenge  them  on 
the  Bourbons  ere  it  dawned. 


Section  II 

OLD  MONARCHIES  AND  THE  AMERICAN  STATES 

(1763-1789) 

These  kings,  of  whom  the  least  incapable 
was  Charles  III.,  did  all  they  knew  to  hasten 
its  coming.  In  the  German  Empire,  that 
confused  welter  of  principalities,  lay  and 
ecclesiastical;  in  Austria,  when  the  noble 
woman  Maria  Theresa  passed  away,  the 
like  suicidal  policy  was  adopted.  The  elec- 
tors along  the  Rhine,  prelates  of  great  houses 
who  committed  their  spiritual  duties  to 
inferior  bishops  and  went  hunting  or  did 
worse,  thought  to  be  independent  of  the 
Holy  See,  as  already  they  had  shaken  off 
the  Imperial  yoke.  A  semi-Jansenist,  semi- 
Gallican  coadjutor  of  Treves,  Yon  Hontheim, 


180    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

composed  the  manifesto  which  none  of  them 
could  write,  and  gave  it  to  the  world  in 
17G3  under  the  name  of  Febronius.  It  is 
a  plea  for  national  Churches  in  the  spirit  of 
Henry  VIII.  Going  far  beyond  the  language 
and  ideas  of  Bossuet  or  Fleury,  it  would  have 
set  up  the  mere  episcopal  system  after  pulling 
down  the  Pope,  making  him  a  titular  first 
among  equals,  with  no  jurisdiction  outside 
Rome.  Febronius  underwent  condemnation 
by  the  Holy  See;  he  denied  his  book,  and 
formally  submitted.  But  the  electors  did  not 
cease  from  troubling  by  their  "Articles" 
of  Cologne  and  "Points  of  Ems,"  until 
the  Revolution  came  and  took  them  all 
away. 

In  Austria,  Joseph  II.,  whom  "Old  Fritz" 
called  "my  brother  the  sacristan"  (1780- 
1792),  reproduced  the  mighty  Tudor  legis- 
lation in  a  very  poor  copy,  suppressing 
monasteries,  regulating  public  worship,  while 
lie  was  scorned  by  Freethinkers  as  by  earnest 
Catholics,  and  displayed  the  peculiar  in- 
competence of  a  royal  person  who  meddles 
with  religion.  Protestants  and  Jews  were 
relieved  from  their  disabilities,  for  toleration 
had  been  proclaimed  the  order  of  the  dr.y. 
But  all  monasticism  was  put  down,  for 
Enlightenment   demanded    that   superstition 


THE  AMERICAN  STATES  181 

should  no  longer  be  encouraged;  neither  did 
it  object  to  the  confiscation  by  the  State  of 
property  held  on  a  religious  tenure.  Pope 
Pius  VI.,  the  "xVpostolic  pilgrim,"  travelled 
to  Vienna  in  1782,  hoping  that  he  might  per- 
suade Joseph  II.  to  alter  his  policy.  The 
journey  gave  striking  evidence  that  a  Roman 
Pontiff  could  still  reckon  upon  the  devotion 
of  multitudes  in  Catholic  lands.  It  was  a 
first  intimation  that  the  Church  would  one 
day  throw  herself  upon  the  people.  But  no 
other  good  came  of  that  pilgrimage;  and  it 
furnished  a  precedent  when  Napoleon  sum- 
moned Pius  VII.  to  crown  him  at  Notre 
Dame  as  the  new  Charlemagne. 

We  have  uttered  the  spell-breaking  and 
spell-binding  name  which  tells  us  that  Revo- 
lution stands  at  the  doors.  It  had  crossed 
the  Atlantic  with  Franklin  and  Lafayette. 

America,  says  a  thoughtful  writer,  applying 
Bacon's  phrase  about  his  own  system  to  facts 
in  history,  was  "the  greatest  birth  of  time." 
Emphatically  the  "New  World,"  it  not  only 
doubled  man's  earthly  dominion  but  gave 
to  his  experiments  a  scope  without  limit. 
Utopia  might  be  found  or  created  across  the. 
ocean.  To  plant  a  second  Europe,  the  mere 
imitation  of  the  first,  on  Atlantic  shores, 
was  not  possible;  for  how  set  up  Emperor, 


182    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Pope,  or  a  permanent  feudal  system  where  no 
such  institutions  had  grown,  while  the  original 
claimed  supremacy  and  would  not  suffer 
competition?  In  the  secrets  of  the  future 
lay  two  ideas  which  America  was  destined 
to  realize,  and  which  their  advocates  would 
term  Democracy  and  Disestablishment.  The 
people  were  to  be  the  State,  and  the  State  was 
not  to  be  lord  of  the  Church.  In  Europe, 
hitherto,  a  republic  had  been  no  more  than 
a  monarchy  discrowned;  man,  as  man,  was 
not  a  citizen,  but  only  man  as  in  some  way 
qualified;  such  is  the  exact  meaning  of  the 
term  "franchise,"  a  right  winch  I  have  and 
you  have  not.  The  liberties  of  a  city  were  its 
boundaries,  shutting  out  king,  noble,  prelate. 
Individual  freedom  could  not  exist  save  by 
a  charter.  Humanity,  in  itself,  gave  no  claim 
at  law.  It  is  true  that  Roman  jurisconsults 
employed  a  language  that  has  left  its  traces 
on  the  political  dissertations  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  But  until  America  "shouted  to 
Liberty,"  as  Grattan  finely  said,  all  freedom 
was  privilege.  When  her  voice  was  heard 
privilege  made  ready  for  battle.  This  is  the 
story  of  mankind  since,  in  Boston  Harbour, 
certain  chests  of  tea  were  flung  overboard  by 
the  natives  of  Massachusetts  disguised  as 
Red  Indians.     America  has  led,  Europe  has 


THE  AMERICAN  STATES  183 

followed.     Bishop  Berkeley  sang  this  great 
consummation, 

Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way. 

The  first  four  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day. 

Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last. 

While  Christendom  was  one,  and  religious 
unity  existed,  the  ideal  embodied  in  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire  could  inspire  poets, 
govern  laws,  and  protect  faith.  In  the  cen- 
tury of  enlightenment,  as  Voltaire  said,  the 
phantom  which  bore  this  title  was  "neither 
holy,  nor  Roman,  nor  empire";  religious 
unity  had  given  place  to  sects  ever  more 
numerous;  unbelievers  were  to  be  found 
in  every  country  of  Europe.  How  then  was 
it  possible  to  carry  on  a  government  which 
supposed  that  all  its  subjects  held  one  creed? 
Establishment  and  a  Test  Act  had  been  the 
rule  in  England.  The  wars  of  religion  laid 
waste  Germany.  To  banish  Huguenots  and 
put  Jansenists  outside  the  law  had  failed  to 
bring  religious  peace  among  Frenchmen. 
Now  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  persecuted  in 
its  turn;  and  where  would  the  lex  talionis 
end  its  ravages? 

One  thing  was  clear, — the  old  founda- 
tions of  the  State  were  hopelessly  shattered. 


184    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

Monarchy,  as  D'Argenson  perceived  before 
17o0,  was  undermined  by  the  Republican 
sentiment  which  demanded  equal  laws  and 
liberty  of  conscience  for  all.  These  conclu- 
sions, not  due  to  speculative  philosophers, 
came  as  a  natural  consequence  after  Ver- 
sailles had  shown  how  impotent  was  a 
"Great  King"  to  secure  the  prosperity  of 
his  kingdom.  The  banished  Huguenots  had 
beaten  Louis  XIV.;  Port  Royal  in  ruins 
was  a  Jansenist  victory.  Elsewhere,  Penal 
Statutes  were  falling  into  discredit;  and  the 
Catholic  Church,  in  Ireland  or  in  Austria, 
sighed  for  freedom.  In  a  divided  Christen- 
dom the  system  of  the  Middle  Ages  could  no 
longer  be  maintained.  It  was  fast  becoming 
a  memory  or  an  ideal. 

Lord  Baltimore  had  recognized  these  facts, 
at  the  very  time  when  Puritans  were  building 
states  in  New  England  on  the  principle  of 
exclusion.  The  Statutes  of  Maryland  mark 
the  beginnings  of  equality  before  the  law, 
as  it  was  afterwards  proclaimed  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  (177G).  The 
first  amendment  of  1791  to  that  Declaration 
says,  "Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting 
an  establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting 
the  free  exercise  thereof,  or  abridging  the 
freedom  of  speech  or  of  the  press."    Religious 


THE  AMERICAN  STATES  185 

liberty  was  thus  made  a  fundamental  law  of 
the  United  States.  It  had  been  already  ad- 
mitted in  Pennsylvania.  Now  it  became  a 
cornerstone  of  Democracy,  to  be  practised 
on  the  largest  dimensions  of  any  political  or- 
ganism extant  among  men.  The  Amendment 
directly  contradicted  the  Jus  reformandi 
granted  to  rulers  by  the  Peace  of  Westphalia. 
It  withdrew  from  cognisance  of  the  State 
religious  questions,  leaving  them  to  be 
decided  by  a  higher  tribunal. 

Such  was  the  American  solution,  which  we 
may  associate  with  Washington's  name.  The 
French,  to  be  considered  hereafter,  was  de- 
rived in  its  earlier  stage  from  the  Jansenists, 
who  dictated  the  Civil  Constitution  of  the 
clergy  in  1790;  and  its  final  shape  as  the 
Concordat  is  due  to  Napoleon.  It  contra- 
dicts the  American  idea  no  less  evidently 
than  the  American  overthrows  the  system  of 
"Westphalia.  In  the  French  declaration  of 
the  Rights  of  Man  and  the  citizen  "liberty 
ot  worship"  is  described  as  so  natural  that 
only  the  presence  of  tyranny  requires  it 
to  be  explicitly  mentioned.  The  Constituent 
assembly  and  Napoleon  thought  otherwise. 
To  the  Catholic  religion,  in  particular,  so  the 
Constitution  and  the  First  Consul  declared, 
protection  was  due;  but  from  the  clergy  both 


186    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

exacted  a   servitude  as  complete  as  it  had 
ever  been  under  Louis  XIV. 

Let  us  take  these  clues  to  guide  us  through 
the  French  Revolution,  which  was  wrecked 
as  a  movement  towards  freedom  when  it 
touched  the  Rock  of  St.  Peter.  That  is  no 
figure  of  speech,  it  is  truth  of  history.  Or, 
looking  upon  the  peace  and  progress  whereby 
the  American  Union  has  become,  in  Lord 
Acton's  words,  "a  community  more  powerful, 
more  prosperous,  more  intelligent,  and  more 
free  than  any  other  which  the  world  has 
seen,"  we  may  ask  the  reason  why.  So 
far  as  language  can  make  them  identical,  the 
French  Rights  of  Man  do  not  differ  from  those 
upheld  by  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
Why  then  had  France  religious  troubles 
culminating  under  the  Republic  in  the  Yen- 
dean  tragedy,  while  Napoleon  after  signing 
the  Concordat  deposed  and  imprisoned  the 
Pope  with  whom  he  had  made  it?  The 
answer  to  this  question,  if  it  can  be  found, 
will  give  us  a  master  key  to  present  and  future 
problems  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 


CHAPTER  VI 

from  the  revolution  to  waterloo  (1789- 
1815.  chateaubriand,  "  genius  of 
christianity."       consalvi    and    pacca, 

"memoirs") 

The  American  Revolution  nearly  coincides 
with  the  death  of  Louis  XV.  Counting  from 
1G24,  when  Richelieu  took  the  reins,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  had  gone  by,  during 
which  the  French  King  was  the  State  and  the 
Church  personified;  but  the  people,  the 
Tiers  Etat,  were  nothing.  The  clergy,  indeed, 
constituted  a  self-taxing  body,  and  as  an 
estate  of  the  realm  met  regularly  for  the 
despatch  of  business.  High  Court  prelates, 
in  France  as  elsewhere,  often  led  unchristian 
lives.  A  few  bishops  and  abbots  enjoyed 
excessive  revenues;  the  clergy  were  ill-paid, 
shamefully  neglected,  and  handled  with  a  deal 
of  scorn,  even  by  that  Cristophe  de  Beau- 
mont already  named,  who  was  an  edifying 
Archbishop  of  Paris,  and  very  unlike  Cardinal 
de  Retz,  his  predecessor  of  the  Fronde  in 
1(;60.  Living  away  from  Marly  and  other 
king's  houses,  the  French  priest  was,  by  the 

1S7 


188    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

testimony  of  all  that  knew  him,  devout, 
unworldly,  his  people's  friend,  and  at  heart 
democratic,  but  not  disloyal.  In  1789  he  was 
called  upon  to  send  his  representatives  to  the 
States-General  at  Versailles.  He  did  so,  and 
these  "democrats  in  cassocks,"  to  the  num- 
ber of  one  hundred  and  forty-nine,  went  over 
en  masse  to  the  Third  Estate  (June  19,  1789), 
to  be  followed  by  the  rest  of  the  clerical 
deputies,  thus  creating  a  National  Assembly 
that  was  to  "conquer  its  king."  To  this 
extent  the  clergy  made  the  Revolution  with 
a  willing  heart. 

They  did  more.  On  August  4,  1789,  in  one 
single  session  at  night,  the  whole  regime  of 
feudalism  was  overturned.  It  is  not  easy  to 
improve  on  the  sentence  in  which  this  por- 
tentous change  has  been  summed  up,  "Lib- 
erty, until  now  known  as  privilege,  was 
henceforward  to  be  identified  with  equality." 
The  clergy  were  willing  to  commute  their 
tithe;  they  surrendered  to  the  nation  rights 
held  sacred  and  inviolable  for  over  a  thousand 
years.  The  Fourth  of  August  is  certainly  a 
touching  moment  in  human  story.  It  lays 
bare  the  generous  heart  of  France;  it  justifies 
the  enthusiasm  which  burst  into  lyric  expres- 
sion on  the  lips  of  Charles  Fox  and  in  the 
poetry  of  Wordsworth;  but  it  was  a  moment 


TO  WATERLOO  189 

too  beautiful  to  last.  And  as  regards  the 
clergy,  their  action  grandly  illustrates  the 
saying  of  the  Italian  priest  who  was  likewise 
an  Italian  patriot,  Rosmini,  at  another  critical 
epoch,  "Liberty  and  equality  are  the  essence 
of  the  priesthood."  When,  on  August  8, 
1789,  the  Marquis  de  Lacoste  moved  to  pay  a 
new  loan  out  of  Church  funds  and  to  abolish 
tithe,  not  one  ecclesiastic  opposed  him. 
Sieves,  keenest  and  strangest  of  French  clerics 
who  have  been  statesmen,  protested  that 
the  landlord  would  gain  what  the  clergy 
lost,  and  this  very  thing  came  to  pass.  On 
August  11  the  Church  gave  up  its  claim.  Dis- 
endowment  was  begun;  but  disestablishment, 
which  would  have  brought  freedom  to  religion, 
was  an  idea  too  liberal  for  any  French  Govern- 
ment effectively  to  grant  it. 

On  August  2G  the  Declaration  of  the  Rights 
of  Man  was  voted ;  it  makes  no  mention  of  an 
established  Church.  The  "voluntary  sys- 
tem" would  have  implied  one  of  two  things — 
either  to  give  the  Free  Church  compensation 
for  its  property,  now  taken  over  by  the  State; 
or  Lo  let  it  go  penniless  and  find  support  in 
the  generosity  of  its  adherents.  A  third 
course  was  decreed  in  the  Civil  Constitution  of 
the  Clergy.  They  became  salaried  officials 
governed  by  a  Minister  of  Worship;  and  a 


190    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

department  of  State  like  any  other.  Priests 
were  to  be  appointed,  by  election,  that  is  to 
say,  by  the  votes  of  citizens,  no  matter  what 
their  belief;  and  the  Holy  See  was  no  longer 
to  institute  bishops.  In  one  word,  the  Rights 
of  Man  had  brought  forth  a  National  Church 
unable  to  move  hand  or  foot  without  per- 
mission of  a  State  official  who  need  not  be  a 
Christian.  This  pattern  has  been  imitated 
in  all  Constitutions  moulded  on  the  principles 
of  1789.  It  is  the  Latin  democratic  model. 
It  led  up  to  the  flight  and  execution  of  Louis 
XVI. ,  the  Reign  of  Terror,  the  War  in  La 
Vendee.  It  created  the  deep  gulf  which  on  the 
Continent  separates  Rome  from  the  modern 
State.  As  in  substance  adopted  by  the 
Bourbons  after  their  Restoration  in  1814,  it 
weakened  and  divided  their  followers  until 
they  were  thrust  out  for  good  and  all  during 
the  Three  Days  of  July,  1830. 

But  to  leave  these  consequences  for  the 
present,  we  remark  that  Talleyrand,  still 
Bishop  of  Autun,  and  Mirabeau  (October  10, 
November  10,  1789)  carried  through  the 
Assembly  a  law  which  placed  the  whole  prop- 
erty of  the  French  Church  at  Government  dis- 
posal; and  notes  assigned  on  it,  "assignats," 
were  issued  soon  afterwards.  In  February, 
1790,  monastic  vows  were  deprived  of  legal 


TO  WATERLOO  191 

effect,  religious  orders  suppressed,  and  all 
future  institutions  of  the  kind  forbidden. 
"Liberty  of  worship"  was  guaranteed  by  the 
Rights  of  Man.  These  measures  furnished  a 
commentary  on  them,  speaking  more  loudly 
than  that  most  eloquent  text,  and  pointing 
its  significance  to  Catholics  outside  France. 
But  the  Assembly  went  farther.  It  imposed 
an  oath,  amounting  to  a  dogmatic  affirma- 
tion, on  bishops  and  clergy,  which  "broke 
the  alliance  between  the  cures  and  the 
commons,"  and  compelled  the  Holy  See  to 
intervene.  Jansenist  influences,  guided  by  Le 
Camus  and  Treilhard,  decided  its  form.  The 
month  of  May,  1790,  marks  the  dividing  and 
fatal  line,  at  which  the  Revolution  broke  off 
from  the  Roman  Church.  By  "a  series  of 
hostile  enactments,  carefully  studied  and  long 
pursued,"  the  Assembly  turned  into  implac- 
able enemies  a  clergy  that  desired  nothing 
more  ardently  than  freedom.  America,  choos- 
ing to  stand  by  its  Declaration,  had  secured  to 
itself  the  world's  leadership.  France,  wedded 
to  Louis  XIV.,  in  spite  of  its  bill  of  divorce, 
entered  on  the  path  of  anti-clerical  persecu- 
tion which  it  is  treading  still,  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years  after  religious  liberty  was  pro- 
claimed  to  be  the  inalienable  right  of  all  men. 
Rome,  as  its  custom  is,  moved  slowly,  out 


192    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

of  consideration  for  Louis  XVI.,  and  because 
any  concessions  to  the  new  order  of  things 
would  instantly  provoke  similar  demands  on 
the  part  of  Continental  rulers  elsewhere.  The 
new  bishoprics,  revenues,  and  local  powers  of 
election,  if  safeguarded,  might  not  be  alto- 
gether declined;  but  the  Holy  See  would 
never  give  up  the  right  of  institution.  While 
the  Cardinals  were  deliberating,  Louis,  under 
the  eyes  of  an  infuriated  populace,  set  his 
seal  to  the  Constitution.  Thus  were  created, 
says  Lord  Acton,  "the  motive  and  the 
machinery  of  civil  war."  It  broke  out 
immediately.  The  country  rang  with  dissen- 
sions between  "Nonjurors"  and  "Consti- 
tutionals." The  Abbe  Gregoire  took  the 
oath  (December  27,  1790),  and  many  thou- 
sands of  clergy,  perhaps  nearly  one-third, 
followed  his  example.  But  Pius  VI.  in  March, 
1791,  condemned  the  Church  legislation,  and 
it  was  rejected  without  delay  by  all  except  a 
handful  of  bishops,  by  the  clergy  at  large, 
and  by  most  Catholics. 

Here,  too,  was  a  fresh  beginning.  The 
Pope  came  into  direct  contact  with  a  Church 
that  his  predecessors  had  been  accustomed 
to  guide  by  means  of  'lie  State.  The  Civil 
Constitution,  by  which  it  was  intended  to 
set  up  a  Galilean  democracy,  called  out  the 


TO  WATERLOO  193 

reaction  whose  mouthpiece,  in  the  next 
period,  would  be  Count  Joseph  de  Maistre. 
When  the  French  Church  rose  again,  it 
would  have  ceased  to  be  Gallican,  and  the 
Articles  of  1682  would  no  longer  awaken 
fervour  in  clerical  assemblies.  Rather  than 
swear  an  oath  which  Rome  considered  equal 
to  apostasy,  the  King  fled.  He  was  brought 
back  in  triumph;  and  the  Legislative  pro- 
ceeded to  deprive  "refractory"  priests  of  their 
stipends  and  to  decree  their  banishment. 
These  measures  of  November,  1791,  and  May, 
1792,  Louis  refused  to  sign.  He  became  "Mon- 
sieur Veto."  The  Tuileries  were  stormed  on 
August  10,  1792,  and  the  monarchy  of  Clovis, 
Charlemagne,  and  St.  Louis,  the  oldest  in 
Europe,  fell  before  the  Paris  commune,  led 
to  the  assault  by  Jacobins. 

After  this  fashion,  thanks  to  a  union  of 
forces  partly  Gallican,  partly  anti-Christian, 
France  at  one  blow  lost  King  and  Constitu- 
tion. Nonjuring  priests  were  ordered  to  leave 
the  country  without  delay.  For  such  as  re- 
fused obedience,  transportation  to  Guiana  was 
the  penalty.  A  price  was  set  on  their  heads. 
Their  crime  the  now  rulers  called  "incivisme." 
The  word  was  happily  chosen;  the  idea  came 
from  Rousseau  and  the  Social  Contract. 
Priests  who  would  not  swear  to  the  religion 


194    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

of  State  were  to  be  deprived  of  its  protection, 
put  outside  the  law,  and  treated  as  wild 
beasts  to  be  shot  wherever  seen.  In  Septem- 
ber, 1793,  atheism  was  decreed.  The  Chris- 
tian year  had  been  abolished  twelve  months 
earlier.  Churches  were  closed  all  over  France 
or  became  "Temples  of  Reason."  Gregoire, 
sitting  alone  in  the  Convention  as  a  legal 
bishop,  defended  freedom  even  for  Catholics. 
But  the  guillotine,  the  drownings  in  the  Loire, 
the  destruction  of  La  Vendee,  gave  him  his 
answer.  Persecution  renewed  the  scenes  of 
primitive  martyrdom,  the  catacombs,  the 
prisons  sanctified  by  Christian  heroism. 
Monks  and  nuns  were  slaughtered;  the  French 
wife  and  mother  now  became  enthusiastically 
Catholic,  while  the  husband  was  indifferent 
or  a  poltroon.  The  two  Frances,  never  since 
reconciled,  were  definitely  forming. 

The  Terror  passed;  but  even  in  October, 
1707,  death  was  ordered  by  law  to  be  inflicted 
on  emigrant  priests  who  should  return,  and 
until  the  elections  of  1797  "every  priest  was 
in  fact,  as  well  as  in  theory,  in  deadly  peril." 
There  was  a  remnant  of  the  Constitutional 
Church,  discredited  and  enslaved.  What  the 
French  Catholics  wanted  was  the  old  religion; 
many  were  no  longer  royalists;  and  it'  the 
American  statesmen  had  been  consulted  thev 


TO  WATERLOO  195 

would  have  given  the  word  "freedom"  as 
their  advice  to  governors  and  governed.  On 
September  1,  1797,  a  law  was  enacted,  but 
almost  immediately  repealed,  which  looked  in 
this  direction.  Between  that  date  and  No- 
vember, 1799,  lettres  de  cachet,  involving  trans- 
portation or  death,  were  issued  against  9951 
priests  in  France  and  Belgium,  accused  of 
"fanaticism."  Bonaparte  might  well  ask,  as 
he  did  at  Toulon  on  his  way  to  Egypt,  "Have 
the  soldiers  of  liberty  become  executioners?" 
But  the  speaker  himself  had  made  possible 
the  crime  which  in  these  words  he  reprobated; 
for  it  was  Bonaparte  who,  on  the  18  of  Fructi- 
dor  (September  4,  1797),  gave  supreme  power 
into  the  hands  of  the  Jacobin  Directory.  His 
campaigns  in  Italy  were  for  conquest  and 
plunder,  varnished  with  phrases  taken  from 
the  revolutionary  jargon.  But  he  was 
pursuing  a  definite  personal  aim;  and  he 
thought  the  Italians  unworthy,  the  French 
incapable,  of  freedom.  He  had  no  scruples; 
religion  did  not  trouble  him.  In  June,  179G, 
he  had  invaded  Bologna,  a  Papal  city,  where 
the  Senate  swore  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
Republic,  and  trees  of  Liberty  were  planted. 
Pius  VI.  was  compelled  to  buy  a  truce  from 
Bonaparte  (June  23,  179G)  on  heavy  condi- 
tions which  he  was  unable  to  fulfil.     Then 


196    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

the  young  general  seized  Aneona;  but  he 
paused  on  the  way  to  Rome  at  Tolentino, 
and  there  made  peace.  The  Pope  surrendered 
his  claim  to  Avignon,  Bologna,  Ferrara, 
Romagna;  he  gave  up  manuscripts  and 
treasures  of  art;  he  was  fined  many  millions. 
His  sacrifices  availed  nothing.  Disorders  in 
Rome  led  to  a  French  intervention  under 
Berthier  in  February,  1798.  The  Roman 
Republic  was  proclaimed  by  "Jews,  apostate 
monks,  and  rebels,"  said  Bonaparte  after- 
wards. On  February  20,  Pius  VI.,  escorted 
by  Republican  soldiers,  was  made  to  quit 
the  Vatican  for  a  long  and  painful  pilgrimage 
to  parts  unknown.  It  ended  eighteen  months 
later  at  Valence,  in  Dauphine,  where  he  died, 
and  where  his  body  remained  another  four 
months  without  burial.  "It  is  not  strange," 
says  Macaulay,  summing  up  these  events, 
"that  in  the  year  17!)!)  even  sagacious  observ- 
ers should  have  thought  that,  at  length,  the 
hour  of  the  Church  of  Rome  had  come." 

Section  II 

THE   FORTUNES   OF  PIUS   VII.    (1800-1815) 

Certainly  it  was,  in  Biblical  language,  the 
"consummation  of  the  age."  But  this  had 
been   preparing   since   America    declared   its 


FORTUNES  OF  PIUS  VII.  197 

independence  in  1776;  and  the  Catholic 
Restoration  was  heralded  by  singular  tokens. 
When  France,  Spain,  and  the  United  States 
combined  in  1778  against  England,  the  Penal 
Laws  were  straightway  relaxed.  Irish  and 
English  Catholics,  as  it  was  said,  saw  the  day 
dawn  across  the  Atlantic.  Their  colleges 
abroad  were  dissolved  by  the  French  Rev- 
olution; and  Pitt  associated  himself  with 
Burke  in  founding  a  seminary  for  priests  at 
Maynooth.  Burke,  religious  and  conser- 
vative by  temper,  proclaimed  with  match- 
less eloquence  the  principles  of  a  society  in 
which  were  to  be  united  liberty  and  authority 
under  the  true  Law  of  Nature.  The  prophet 
of  what  has  been  called  since  that  time 
Ultramontanism,  a  Savoyard  by  birth,  a 
Frenchman  by  mastery  of  the  language, 
Count  de  Maistre,  was  already  committing 
to  print  views  and  opinions  which  would 
transform  the  Gallican  clergy  to  apostles 
of  the  Vatican.  A  marvellous  prose-poet, 
traveller  in  American  wilds,  mystic  and 
politician  at  once,  Chateaubriand,  was  medi- 
tating on  the  "genius  of  Christianity."  And 
O'Connell  and  Lamennais  were  born,  and 
with  them  Cavour's  formula,  "A  Free  Church 
in  a  Free  State." 

The  Directory  might  imprison  or  deport 


198    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

the  clergy;  but  thousands  of  parishes  in 
France  now  had  their  Mass  and  their  priests 
as  of  old,  with  a  devotion  intensified  by  all 
that,  during  ten  years  of  glorious  sufferings, 
had  endeared  the  pastor  to  his  flock.  Free- 
dom, so  long  the  enemy  of  religion,  had 
become  its  friend.  A  vicious  prelacy  could 
not  exist  in  days  of  persecution.  The  Church 
lands  were  gone;  monasteries,  in  ruins  or 
converted  to  secular  uses,  were  memories  of 
a  past  remote  by  comparison  with  Repub- 
lican atrocities  of  yesterday.  Nothing  was 
more  evident  than  that  the  French  Church 
would  revive;  that  the  people  desired  it;  and 
that  if  it  could  preach  and  teach  freely,  it 
would  exercise  a  power  such  as  it  had  never 
possessed  under  the  Crown.  Would  any 
Government,  however  framed  and  named, 
allow  it  such  liberty  while  the  inveterate 
tradition  of  Regalism  held  sway  at  Paris? 
The  First  Consul  replied  by  inventing  the 
Concordat  of  1802. 

Napoleon's  reign  in  France  lasted  under 
the  lilies  of  Consul  and  Emperor  about 
fifteen  years.  It  restored  the  monarchy  of 
Louis  XIV.  as  designed  by  Richelieu,  with- 
out nobles  or  intermediate  self-sustaining 
bodies  of  any  kind.  Richelieu,  Bonaparte, 
the  Revolution,  "one  and  indivisible,"'  agree 


FORTUNES  OF  PIUS  VII.  199 

that  all  agencies  in  Church  and  State  shall 
take  their  orders  from  a  minister,  and  the 
minister  from  the  Chief  of  the  executive 
power.  The  Girondists  attempted  a  Federal 
system  and  were  guillotined  in  consequence. 
Robespierre,  perhaps  we  should  say  Carnot, 
interpreted  the  principles  correctly  which 
have  always  inspired  French  statesmen; 
and  no  doubt  it  was  Bonaparte's  unrivalled 
feeling  for  reality  that,  by  giving  these 
principles  an  application  in  detail  at  once 
striking  and  successful,  convinced  the  nation 
of  his  right  to  govern  them.  The  French  de- 
sire to  be  much  "administered";  they  adore 
a  strong  man;  and  their  idea  of  strength  is 
to  interfere  decisively  in  another  man's 
business.  Philosophers  recognize  the  mili- 
tary type  as  at  all  times  dominating  French 
history;  and  Napoleon,  who  was  constructing 
a  barrack  for  his  twenty-five  millions  of 
subjects,  did  not  refuse  them  a  chapel  within 
the  enclosure.  Its  chaplain  was  to  be  the 
Pope,  receiving  a  salary,  bound  by  the 
Articles  of  108-2,  resident  in  Paris  or  Avignon. 
Such  is  the  whole  purpose  of  the  Concordat, 
which  its  creator  would  never  look  upon  as  a 
treaty  between  equal  contracting  parties; 
it  merely  regulated  that  department  of  the 
State   known   as   the   Catholic  Church.     "I 


200    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

regard  religion,"  he  said  in  1806,  "not  as  the 
mystery  of  the  Incarnation,  but  as  the  secret 
of  social  order."  He  had  acted  on  this  view 
in  Egypt;  he  was  now  meaning  to  apply  it 
in  France. 

And  so  he  turned  to  Pius  VII. ,  lately  elected 
at  Venice,  but  in  his  sympathies  not  Austrian, 
who  had  entered  Rome,  July  3,  1800.  In 
June,  the  battle  of  Marengo  had  given 
Italy  once  more  to  the  French.  Bonaparte 
sent  a  sketch  of  the  future  agreement,  as  he 
conceived  of  it,  to  the  Pope  on  June  25,  and 
a  remarkable  outline  it  is.  The  Constitu- 
tional Church  was  to  disappear;  the  number 
of  bishoprics  must  be  reduced,  and  many 
emigrant  bishops  deprived;  the  clergy  would 
have  adequate  but  not  luxurious  stipends; 
the  Pope  might  freely  exercise  spiritual 
jurisdiction  over  the  Gallican  Church,  and 
he  alone  should  give  its  prelates  canonical 
institution,  but  the  State  was  to  nominate 
them.  Finally,  the  First  Consul  would 
reinstate  the  Pope  in  all  his  dominions. 

It  was  a  tempting  offer,  and  almost  a 
miracle  in  the  light  of  previous  events.  The 
Revolution  had  done  its  utmost  to  destroy 
Catholicism;  it  was  now  prepared  to  recog- 
nize and  establish  the  ancient  Church  not 
on  a  Gallican  but  on  a  Papal  foundation. 


FORTUNES  OF  PIUS  VII.  201 

"What  was  the  alternative?  Madame  de 
Stael  (a  woman  of  rare  genius  and  insight, 
but  Napoleon's  enemy)  tells  us  that  sincere 
Catholics  would  have  been  well  content  with 
an  iVmerican  system,  which  she  calls  "tolera- 
tion." The  American  Constitution  does  not 
"tolerate"  religion;  it  respects  conscience 
and  leaves  religious  associations  to  manage 
their  own  affairs.  But  she  would  probably 
have  in  view  such  a  law  as  that  of  September 
29,  1795,  by  which  the  French  Government 
decreed  separation  of  Church  and  State  with 
consequent  freedom  of  worship.  This  plan 
had  never  been  carried  through.  In  all 
European  countries  except  Holland  free 
religious  association  was  a  thing  unknown 
and  not  understood.  The  Cardinals  of  the 
Roman  Curia  had  been  accustomed  for 
centuries  to  see  religion  either  protected  or 
persecuted  by  the  State;  and  these  appeared 
still  to  be  the  alternatives  under  an  absolute 
ruler  like  Bonaparte.  No  doubt  they  were. 
Could  the  Holy  Father,  then,  ask  the  much- 
tried  French  Catholics,  who  were  now  begin- 
ning to  breathe  freely,  that  they  should 
forego  manifest  advantages,  submit  to  fresh 
tribulations,  and  withstand  the  conqueror  at 
the  moment  when  he  was  holding  out  to  them 
an  olive  branch?     Pius  VII.  was  neither  a 


202    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Hildebrand  nor  an  Innocent  III.  He  was 
a  gentle  and  most  engaging  Benedictine 
monk,  of  Hildebrand's  monastery  at  St. 
Paul's  outside  Rome,  but  cast  in  another 
mould.  On  the  ordinary  laws  of  prudence, 
in  the  interest  of  the  Church,  he  could  not 
but  accept  the  first  Consul's  invitation. 
Accordingly,  he  sent  his  Secretary  of  State, 
Cardinal  Consalvi,  to  Paris. 

Consalvi,  by  far  the  ablest  man  associated 
with  Vatican  memories  in  the  last  century, 
until  Leo  XIII.  rose  to  be  "Lumen  in  cce!o," 
was  by  birth  Roman,  by  descent  Pisan.  lie 
had  suffered  with  Pius  VI.,  and  on  the  Pope's 
exile  was  committed  for  several  months  to 
the  Castle  of  Sant'  Angelo.  Secretary  of  the 
Conclave  in  Venice,  he  was  now  launched  on 
the  career  of  danger  and  vicissitude  to  which 
all  were  exposed  who  had  dealings  with 
Bonaparte.  But  the  Pisan  proved  a  match 
for  the  Corsican,  except  that  he  could  not 
fall  back  on  thirty  legions.  Arriving  in  Paris, 
June  20,  1801,  he  was  graciously  received  at 
the  Tuileries  by  Napoleon  amid  his  court  as  in 
a  theatre.  Negotiations  went  on  with  Bernicr, 
Joseph  Bonaparte,  and  the  First  Consul  him- 
self, whose  method,  made  as  it  was  of  prom- 
ises, threatcnmgs,  and  deceit,  no  statesman 
of  the  Renaissance  could  have  bettered. 


FORTUNES  OF  PIUS  VII.  203 

The  dramatic  story  of  one  project  torn 
up  by  Napoleon  and  flung  in  the  fire,  of  a 
false  copy  substituted  for  the  true,  and 
discovered  only  at  the  last  moment,  must 
be  read  in  CdnsalvTs  memoirs.  On  July  15, 
1801,  the  document  was  at  length  signed 
which  bound  the  Church  by  links  of  steel 
and  gold  to  every  French  Government  down 
to  the  year  1905.  On  Easter  Day,  1802, 
this  mariage  de  convenance,  as  it  was  wittily 
called,  found  solemn  expression  at  the  High 
Mass  in  Notre  Dame,  attended  by  the  Con- 
suls with  military  pomp.  Chateaubriand's 
dazzling  rhetoric  in  his  "Genius  of  Chris- 
tianity" hailed  it  with  an  epithalamium 
unequalled  for  magnificence  and  pathos  in 
any  French  prose  later  than  Bossuet.  Con- 
sal  vi  had  won  a  diplomatic  victory.  The 
First  Consul  had  overcome  resistance  from 
his  ministers  and  generals,  from  freethink- 
ers, Liberals,  and  the  constitutional  clergy. 
Pius  YII.  never  forgot,  in  all  his  subsequent 
misfortunes,  this  "saving  act  of  Christian 
heroism,"  on  the  part  of  Napoleon.  To 
speak  as  the  French  love  to  do,  "the  Revo- 
lution had  gone  to  Mass."  Louis  XVIII. 
and  the  emigrants  protested;  but  the  land 
had  religious  peace. 

What,    then,    was    the    Concordat?      In 


204    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

substance,  it  renewed  that  of  1516  with 
Francis  I.  Government  appointed,  Rome 
instituted  the  bishops  of  France.  But  in- 
stead of  a  propertied  Church  there  were 
salaried  officials.  The  various  rights  of 
patronage  ceased;  and  every  bishop  named 
the  cures  in  his  diocese,  with  their  assistants 
during  pleasure,  all  paid  rather  scantily 
from  the  State  exchequer.  Religious  orders 
were  not  mentioned;  they  had  no  legal 
existence.  Other  worships,  Protestant  and 
Hebrew,  were  put  on  a  similar  establishment 
by  decrees  with  which  this  Concordat  was 
not  implicated.  But,  on  the  one  hand,  Bon- 
aparte required  from  Pius  VII.  an  act  of 
power  without  precedent;  on  the  other  he 
added  such  an  epilogue  to  the  paper  he  had 
signed  as  to  transform  its  character.  The 
act  which  Pius  VII.  executed  on  compulsion 
was  to  break  up  the  old  French  hierarchy, 
dating  in  popular  belief  from  companions  of 
the  Apostles,  to  deprive  thirty-seven  emi- 
grant bishops  who  would  not  resign,  to 
persuade  many  others,  and  to  accept  the 
Government  plan  of  a  new  ecclesiastical 
France.  Most  of  the  former  bishops  yielded 
gracefully.  But  for  some  years  a  "Petite 
Fglise"  stood  out  against  Rome'. 

The    abolition    and    reconstitution    of   the 


FORTUNES  OF  PIUS  VII.  205 

Galilean  Church  by  the  Pope  was,  although 
Bonaparte  did  not  perceive  it,  the  end  of 
Gallicanism.  It  was  the  Fourth  of  August 
over  again.  For  on  that  night  privileges 
were  swept  away  and  only  the  supreme 
authority  was  left.  Napoleon,  therefore,  is 
the  chief  precursor  of  the  Vatican  Council, 
and  of  its  decree  which  recognizes  in  the  Pope 
ordinary  jurisdiction  over  every  bishop  in 
Christendom.  But  this  logic  was  hidden 
from  his  eyes,  and  he  proceeded  to  tack  on 
to  the  Concordat  his  "Organic  Articles," 
which  may  be  shortly  described  as  French 
Acts  of  Praemunire,  making  the  entrance  and 
publication  of  Papal  documents  to  depend  on 
a  Government  placet,  forbidding  recourse  of 
the  bishops  to  Rome,  and  compelling  the 
clergy  to  subscribe  the  Declaration  of  1682. 

All  this  meant  more  than  the  old  servitude, 
especially  as  the  Articles  forbade  every 
Church  establishment  except  the  seminaries 
of  the  bishops.  It  reduced  that  which  had 
been  an  estate  of  the  realm  to  a  department 
like  the  University.  It  divided  the  bishops 
from  the  Holy  See  and  the  clergy  from  the 
people.  A  system  no  less  illogical  than  des- 
potic, it  sowed  the  seeds  of  religious  war  by 
creating  a  perpetual  antagonism  between  the 
head   of   the   Government   and    the   Roman 


208    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Curia.  Napoleon  had  employed  Pius  VII. 
to  get  rid  of  the  old  Church  in  its  historical 
form,  and  of  the  new  or  constitutional.  He 
then  wished  to  make  of  the  Pope  a  mere 
formal  instrument,  such  as  the  servile  minis- 
ters were  who  wrote  out  his  decrees.  When 
he  became  Emperor,  the  sovereign  Pontiff 
was  brought  in  triumph  to  Paris,  that  the 
scene  of  Charlemagne's  consecration  as  Em- 
peror of  the  West  might  be  renewed.  It  was 
done, — with  a  significant  variation,  for  Napo- 
leon crowned  himself.  At  Milan  he  assumed 
the  Iron  Crown  of  Lombardy,  setting  in  mo- 
tion another  train  of  ideas  and  aspirations. 
For  the  Italian  kingdom  was  a  sign  lifted  up 
to  modern  Ghibellincs,  to  Ihose  who  knew  the 
name  and  projects  of  Rienzi,  to  readers  of  the 
marvellous  page  where  Machiavelli  in  his 
"Prince"  concludes  with  an  exhortation  to 
let  the  "Liberator  of  Italy"  appear.  Would 
Milan  be  his  capital  when  he  came?  The 
Italians  worshipped  Napoleon,  but  they  be- 
gan to  dream  of  Liberty. 

And  so  Pius  VII.,  once  more  in  Rome,  was 
a  target  for  the  imperial  shafts.  lie  could  not 
agree  to  the  organic  Articles;  the  Legations 
and  oilier  provinces  of  I  he  Holy  See  were 
denied  him;  the  new  Charlemagne  talked  of 
Rome  as  his  own  city.     The  crisis  arrived 


FORTUNES  OF  PIUS  VII.  207 

with  a  strong  letter  of  Napoleon's,  dated 
February  13,  1806,  in  which  he  said,  "Your 
Holiness  is  Sovereign  in  Rome,  but  I  am  the 
Roman  Emperor."  Pius  VII.  must  break  off 
diplomatic  relations  with  the  enemies  of 
France,  expel  their  subjects,  and  close  his 
ports  to  them.  He  refused,  Consalvi  retired, 
and  Napoleon  made  up  his  mind  to  incorpo- 
rate the  capital  of  Catholicism  with  his  grow- 
ing Empire.  On  February  2,  1808,  General 
Miollis  entered  by  the  Porta  del  Popolo.  He 
occupied  the  city  until  June  10,  1809,  when 
the  Papal  arms  were  torn  down  from  the 
Castle  of  St.  Angelo,  and  the  tricolour  was 
hoisted.  By  a  decree  at  Schonbrunn  the 
victorious  Emperor  had  united  the  Pope's 
territories  to  his  own  dominions.  The  Pope 
solemnly  excommunicated  him  on  that  very 
day.  Pius  would  not  abdicate,  and  on  July  6 
he  was  taken  off  to  Florence.  His  captivity 
lasted  nearly  five  years. 

This  inevitable  outcome  of  Napoleon's 
policy  was  a  profound  mistake.  Had  he 
been  opposed  by  an  Innocent  III.,  public 
opinion  might  have  condoned  his  forcible  acts, 
though  never  his  brutality.  But  Pius  "\  II. 
was  an  angel  of  peace,  not  intriguing  and 
not  resisting,  who  still  with  patient  firmness 
held    the    ground    of    principle    when    other 


208    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

sovereigns  lay  in  the  dust  before  this  Corsican 
Attila.  And  Attila  was  resolved  on  a  divorce 
that  he  might  found  a  dynasty;  but  the 
Pope  his  prisoner  would  not  break  a  mar- 
riage that,  to  the  Pope's  knowledge,  was 
valid.  Furthermore,  the  demi-god,  which 
Napoleon  now  was  in  his  own  esteem,  de- 
manded from  all  future  pontiffs  an  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  French  Emperor. 

While  he  kept  the  defenceless  old  man  in  a 
lonely  prison  at  Savona,  he  drove  the  Cardi- 
nals together  at  Paris.  He  degraded  those 
who  would  not  attend  his  wedding  with 
Marie  Louise;  and,  when  the  Pope  declined 
to  institute  his  bishops,  called  a  Council  in 
Notre  Dame,  which  was  to  act  without  and 
contrary  to  Papal  authority.  The  Council 
met,  trembled,  but  would  not  obey  (June  17- 
August  5,  1811).  Under  extreme  pressure, 
it  asked  the  Pope  to  sanction  the  institution 
of  bishops  by  the  archbishop  in  an  emergency, 
and  he  did  so.  Before  starting  for  Moscow, 
the  Caliph  (as  Napoleon  was  fond  of  describ- 
ing himself)  ordered  that  Pius  should  be  taken 
to  Fontainebleau,  there  to  await  the  victor's 
return.  When  that  happened,  the  Papacy 
was  to  be  transferred  to  Paris,  the  spiritual 
to  be  separated  from  the  temporal  power,  and, 
said  Napoleon  in  the  same  breath,  "I  would 


FORTUNES  OF  PIUS  VII.  209 

have  governed  the  world  both  of  politics  and 
religion."  His  dream  vanished  amid  the 
snows  of  Russia;  it  dropped  with  his  sol- 
diers' muskets  on  that  wintry  march,  and 
sank  in  the  ice-drifts  of  the  Beresina. 

But  he  would  not  let  his  victim  go  free. 
The  Pope  lingered  at  Fontainebleau,  half 
dead  and  with  enfeebled  mind,  from  June  16, 
181L2,  until  the  Emperor  suddenly  came 
tli  it  her,  on  January  18  of  next  year,  to  en- 
force fresh  demands.  The  beaten  man  was 
playing  for  desperate  stakes.  Without  help 
or  advice  on  which  he  could  rely,  the  Pope 
yielded  so  far  as  to  sign  a  new  Concordat,  giv- 
ing up  his  right  of  institution.  The  effort 
almost  deprived  him  of  reason,  and  on  March 
24  he  withdrew  his  signature,  extorted  thus 
by  sheer  violence  after  a  long  imprisonment. 
It  was  clear  to  all  the  world  that  constraint 
alone  had  wrung  from  the  Holy  Father  a 
momentary  adhesion  to  the  Emperor's  wishes. 
The  Concordat  was  published  and  had  force 
of  law,  during  the  brief  period  now  remaining 
before  Xapoleon  himself  abdicated  under  the 
same  roof  at  Fontainebleau. 

By  that  date  the  Pope  was  taken  back  to 
Savona,  which  he  left  again  on  March  19, 
1814,  a  few  days  previous  to  the  decision 
made  at  Dampierre  by  the  Allies  to  advance 


210    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

on  Paris.  May  24  saw  the  Apostolic  prisoner 
free,  and  triumphantly  returning  to  his  capi- 
tal, where  Spanish  and  Sardinian  sovereigns 
and  Marie  Louise  of  Etruria  waited  for  him. 
During  the  Hundred  Days  he  retired  before 
Murat  to  Genoa;  but  on  June  17,  1815,  he 
made  his  fourth  and  last  entrance  into  Rome. 
Two  days  afterwards  the  Congress  of  Vienna 
resolved  that  St.  Peter's  successor  should 
have  restored  to  him  not  only  the  Patri- 
mony, but  the  Marches,  the  Legations, 
Beneventum  and  Pontecorvo.  This  extraor- 
dinary event  was  due  to  Consalvi,  who 
had  proved  himself  equal  to  the  assembled 
diplomatists  of  Europe,  as  he  had  previously 
withstood  Xapoleon  to  his  face. 

The  fallen  Emperor  set  out  on  his  voyage 
to  St.  Helena  in  the  British  vessel  "Northum- 
berland," on  August  10,  1815.  He  died  at 
Longwood,  May  5,  1821;  and  the  Pope, 
whom  lie  had  so  deeply  injured,  lamented  him 
with  tears.  Manzoni  chanted  his  requiem 
in  the  musical  and  sympathetic  ode  which 
stirred  Italian  hearts  to  their  deepest.  After 
all,  the  genius  of  Xapoleon  was  native  in  its 
origin  to  Elorence;  and  they  might  claim  the 
conqueror  and  lawgiver  of  Europe  as  their 
kith  and  kin. 


CHAPTER  VII 

from  waterloo  to  the  fall  of  rome 
(1815-1870.  de  maistre,  "on  the 
pope";  neilsen,  "papacy  in  xixth 
century,"  ii.) 

The  Holy  Alliance,  Metternich,  the  Carbo- 
nari, the  Sanfedisti,  the  Ordinances  and  the 
Three  Days  of  July,  Lamennais,  the  "Affairs 
of  Rome,"  Thiers  and  Guizot,  the  "Year  of 
Revolutions" — who  is  there  now  living  that 
has  a  clear  remembrance  of  these  things  and 
the  period  to  which  they  belong?  They  are 
gone  "with  the  years  beyond  the  Flood." 
Reader,  can  you  make  an  effort  of  good- 
will and  imagination,  to  recall  for  one  brief 
moment  this  interlude  between  the  defeat  of 
Napoleon  at  Waterloo  and  the  rise  of  Italy 
to  independence?  It  has  ended  in  the  setting 
up  of  a  new  and  Protestant  German  Em- 
pire on  the  ruins  of  that  which  for  a  thou- 
sand years  had  professed  to  be  Holy  and 
Roman.  It  has  brought  in  the  reign  of 
democracy  acknowledged  and  making  laws 
in  all  Parliaments.  From  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  to  the  Council  of  the  Vatican  is,  it 
211 


212    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

would  now  appear,  but  an  episode,  at  the 
close  of  which,  and  on  the  fall  of  Home,  that 
spirit,  imprisoned  rather  than  set  free  in  the 
Declaration  of  1789,  was  to  come  into  pos- 
session of  the  world-powers,  and  to  dictate 
the  programme  of  history. 

Rome  is,  in  the  era  which  we  have  yet  to 
sum  up  and  consider,  strangely  symbolical. 
The  European  movement  centres  round  it. 
We  may  fruitfully  compare  the  Pope's  situa- 
tion to  that  of  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  between 
a  dying  Empire  which  he  would  have  gladly 
defended,  and  the  onset  of  barbarian  tribes. 
St.  Gregory  was  loyal  and  despairing — we  see 
it  in  his  letters,  we  hear  it  in  his  discourses  to 
the  Roman  people.  In  the  nineteenth  century 
the  Pope's  encyclical  epistles  are  great  la- 
ments, uttered  as  the  ancient  order  of  things 
is  breaking  up  and  is  falling  into  the  gulf  of 
oblivion.  They  are  full  of  pathos,  while  they 
provoke  the  aspiring  Liberal  to  scorn  them 
as  impotent,  and  the  revolutionary  to  con- 
tinue his  successful  assault  on  institutions 
which  he  hates,  but  has  not  altogether 
destroyed.  Yet  on  a  large  review  those  allo- 
cutions will  be  found  to  have  pleaded  the 
cause  of  spiritual  freedom.  Their  opposition 
to  (Vsar  has  made  for  progress.  And  if  we 
discern,    as    we    ought,    the    severe    classic 


TO  THE  FALL  OF  ROME         213 

features  of  Napoleon  behind  every  enactment 
that  strikes  at  the  claim  to  voluntary  associa- 
tion with  which  religion  is  connected,  we  shall 
come  to  understand  that  there  is  a  democ- 
racy whose  rights  the  Vatican  watches  over. 
The  Pope  can  never  be  a  Regalist;  the  abso- 
lute State  will  always  persecute  him. 

For  lack  of  spiritual  insight  Napoleon, 
though  so  amazing  a  man  of  genius,  had 
made  war  on  nationality  in  England,  Spain 
and  Russia;  on  religion  in  all  his  dominions; 
and  on  freedom  everywhere.  The  nations 
had  risen  and  had  pulled  down  the  Colossus. 
But  when  the  Allies  were  settling  Europe  at 
Vienna,  while  professing  to  defend  religion, 
they  conspired  against  liberty,  and  they 
trampled  on  national  feelings.  Especially  did 
they  cut  and  carve  the  Italian  peninsula,  as 
though  it  were  nothing  better  than  the  corpse 
of  antiquity.  But  nations  were  no  longer 
minded  to  be  the  playthings  of  dynasties,  old 
or  new.  Ireland,  Poland,  Greece,  Belgium, 
uttered  their  claim  for  recognition  as  loudly 
as  Spain  or  Germany,  flushed  with  pride  after 
a  war  of  Liberation.  The  principles  of  '89 
had  been  written  in  an  abstract  dialect;  but 
the  nations  were  stubborn  realities,  each 
determined  to  live  its  own  life. 

Again,  the  movement  in  literature  called 


214    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Romanticism  favoured  every  attempt  which 
revived  home  memories,  gave  new  charm  to 
the  ancient  language  and  customs  of  the 
race,  and  protected  smaller  communities  from 
absorption  in  a  colourless  civilization.  We 
feel  the  oncoming  of  this  great  change  in 
Chateaubriand's  writings,  in  Scott,  Byron, 
and  above  all  in  Goethe,  from  whom  these 
poets  and  story-tellers  learnt  much  of  their 
craft.  And  how  should  Italy  not  be  touched 
by  the  same  influence?  But  Austria  held 
Lombardy  and  Venctia  in  an  iron  clasp. 
Naples  had  been  given  buck  to  the  Bourbons. 
Even  Consalvi,  more  of  a  politician  than  a 
poet,  failed  to  enter  into  the  significance  of 
Romanticism,  and  kept  up  the  French  system 
of  government  in  the  Papal  States.  That 
Italy  must  be  developed  on  the  sound  and 
splendid  traditions  which  were  still  its  own, 
did  not  occur  to  this  otherwise  clear-eyed 
ruler  of  men.  Thus,  after  1815,  the  "Risorgi- 
mento" — a  word  as  inspiring  as  the  Renais- 
sance three  centuries  earlier — seemed  to 
portend  rebellion  from  the  Alps  to  Palermo. 
Mctternich,  called  by  those  whom  he  kept 
down  Mitternacht,  or  the  Prince  of  Darkness, 
had  come  into  power  when  the  French  Em- 
pire was  at  its  height.  ^  ithout  more  scruples 
than    Kaunitz,    but   made   by    circumstance 


TO  THE  FALL  OF  ROME         215 

the  champion  of  Christendom,  he  first  allied 
the  Austrian  monarchy  with  Napoleon  by 
the  iniquitous  marriage  that  sacrificed  Marie 
Louise,  and  then  declared  against  him  in 
time  for  the  Battle  of  the  Nations  at  Leipzig 
(October  16-18,  1813).  During  the  next 
thirty-five  years  Mettcrnich  stood  as  the 
Reaction  incarnate  before  Europe.  In  con- 
junction with  Alexander  of  Russia,  a  senti- 
mental dreamer,  and  with  lesser  royal  per- 
sonages, he  formed  the  Holy  Alliance,  which 
was  intended  to  support  absolute  govern- 
ments by  appealing  to  religion  and  patriotism. 
But  he  dreaded  Alexander  as  capable  of  ex- 
ploiting the  Jacobin  movement,  still  making 
itself  felt  everywhere,  to  his  own  advantage. 
For  the  Tsar  posed  as  the  "Liberator"  of 
Europe.  France  and  Italy  were  the  smok- 
ing furnaces  of  revolution  always.  The 
Bourbons  could  set  up  old  forms  again,  but 
to  give  them  life  was  impossible.  A  Charter 
"conceded"  by  grace  of  the  Crown,  English 
constitutional  peculiarities  transplanted  to 
Paris,  the  Concordat  of  151(3  brought  out 
of  its  tomb,  but  ministers  like  Fouche  and 
Talleyrand  retained — the  sum  of  these  things 
was  confusion.  As  Chateaubriand  wrote, 
"Religion,  ideas,  interest,  language,  earth 
and  heaven,  all  were  different  for  the  People 


216    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

and  the  King,  separated  by  twenty-five 
years  which  were  equivalent  to  centuries." 
Russia,  so  Metternich  believed,  was  provok- 
ing the  Liberals  in  Latin  countries  to  secret 
confederacy  and  open  revolt.  The  rising  in 
Naples  of  1820  enabled  him,  once  for  all, 
to  get  from  Alexander  an  approval  of  the 
Austrian  system,  which  reduced  Italy  to  a 
name  on  the  map,  and  made  its  potentates, 
including  the  Holy  Sec,  subject  to  Vienna. 

Thus,  by  methods  of  repression,  as  Napo- 
leon by  setting  on  his  brows  the  Iron  Crown, 
Metternich  awoke  in  many  minds,  and 
especially  among  the  youth  growing  to  man- 
hood, a  deep  yearning  for  the  free  united 
Italy  to  be  restored,  which  had  once  been 
mistress  of  the  world.  A  boy-poet,  Leopardi, 
gave  piercing  expression  to  these  dangerous 
thoughts.  In  the  Two  Sicilies,  a  kind  of 
political  camorra  sprang  up,  whose  members, 
bound  by  secret  oaths  and  advocates  of  regi- 
cide doctrines,  called  themselves  Carbonari, 
charcoal-burners.  The  Papal  Government, 
transformed  by  two  French  occupations,  was 
neither  old  nor  new.  Chateaubriand  says 
brilliantly  that  in  Rome  "the  French  left 
their  principles  behind  them";  it  would  be 
more  exact  to  observe  that  they  had  created 
a   problem   and   left   its   solution   to   others. 


TO  THE  FALL  OF  ROME  217 

Italians,  and  among  them  the  Holy  Father's 
subjects,  were  ambitious  of  a  share  in  the 
world's  progress,  material  and  industrial 
no  less  than  political.  But  the  famous 
question  demanded  a  reply,  "How  was  the 
government  to  be  carried  on?"  Nepotism, 
which  gave  the  Pope  trusty  ministers,  was 
dead  long  ago.  The  Cardinals  had  lost  their 
wealth,  and  could  not,  as  in  times  past, 
spare  the  people  from  heavy  burdens  of 
taxation.  Clerics  alone  occupied  important 
posts  and  administered  the  offices  of  State. 
Moreover,  on  the  Napoleonic  system,  which 
Consalvi  did  not  alter,  a  centralized  rule 
swept  away  local  customs  and  privileges, 
dear  to  these  old  cities,  which  in  their  fierce 
self-idolatry  were  as  Greek  as  Thebes  or 
Megara  had  been. 

"When  Pius  VII.  died  Consalvi's  reign  wras 
over.  Leo  XII.  governed  with  a  reformer's 
zeal  and  severity.  But  the  Romans,  it  is 
said,  did  not  like  him  at  all;  his  Vigil- 
ance Committee  was  hated;  and  Cardinal 
Rivarola's  action  in  putting  down  the  Car- 
bonari at  Ravenna  (1825)  excited  wide- 
spread indignation.  A  veiled  civil  war  is 
the  only  description  that  will  express  the 
ition  of  Italy  and  the  Papal  States 
during  the  years  from  1820  to  1848.     Amid 


218    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

such  a  conflict  of  ideas  and  parties  reform 
could  be  hardly  attempted,  nor  was  it 
likely  to  succeed.  Leo  XII.  was  not  opposed 
to  the  Charter  in  France  nor  unwilling  to 
recognize  that  the  world  had  entered  on 
fresh  paths.  He  said  to  the  remarkable 
man  whom  we  have  quoted  above,  and  whose 
memoirs  give  a  lively  picture  of  the  times, 
"The  Catholic  Church  has  prospered  in 
the  midst  of  republics  as  in  the  bosom  of 
monarchies;  it  has  made  immense  progress 
in  the  United  States;  it  reigns  alone  in 
Spanish  America."  Consalvi  had  advised 
Leo  to  treat  directly  with  insurgent  peoples 
across  the  Atlantic,  disregarding  Spain's 
pretensions,  and  the  Holy  See  did  so,  follow- 
ing its  rule  of  setting  religious  interests  before 
old  alliances.  But  Chateaubriand  held  that 
the  Papal  Government  needed  young  blood, 
and  instruments  not  yet  created.  Cardinals 
born  previous  to  1789  were  by  temper  and 
experience  strengthened  in  their  resistance 
to  ideas  that  had  been  bathed  in  blood. 
Moreover,  Rome  could  not  boast  of  the 
resources  that  were  necessary  to  carry  through 
an  extensive  programme.  It  was  clear  to 
observers  that  events  in  the  great  world 
outside  would  determine  the  future  of  the 
IIolv  See. 


TO  THE   FALL  OF  ROME  219 

These  events  were  not  slow  in  coming. 
The  Restoration,  kept  afloat  by  Louis  XVIII., 
a  fatigued  Voltarian,  suffered  shipwreck 
under  his  light-minded  brother  Charles  X. 
It  vexed  earnest  Catholics  by  a  sort  of  feeble 
Gallicanism,  irritated  Liberals,  led  to  the 
definite  rise  of  the  "anti-clerical,"  who  ever 
since  has  made  war  on  Jesuits,  and  gave 
itself  over  to  the  "ignorant  and  visionary." 
Polignac,  who,  by  advising  the  ordinances  of 
July,  1830,  against  the  liberty  of  the  press, 
brought  the  Bourbon  monarchy  to  the 
ground.  Louis  Philippe,  son  of  "Egalite" 
and  citizen-king,  took  its  place.  The  "Three 
Days  of  July''  were  a  victory  for  Liberal  ideas 
but  not  a  defeat  for  the  Church.  Why  not? 
Because,  answers  M.  Faguet,  in  1830  the 
Constitution  took  away  from  Government 
its  monopoly  of  education  (insisted  upon 
by  Charles  X.  in  1828),  and  so  gave  to 
Catholics,  above  all  to  religious  orders,  a 
freedom  which  would  have  made  them 
independent.  This  observation  is  profoundly 
just.  The  struggle  in  modern  times  between 
Christian  and  unchristian  theories  (which 
decides  every  other)  must  be  fought  out 
in  the  schools. 

But  that  victory,  so  far  as  gained,  was  due 
to  a  man  of  rare  genius,  a  Breton,  a  priest, 


220    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

and  a  journalist  whose  name  was  Lamennais. 
He  on  the  Catholic  side,  as  Lafayette  on  the 
Liberal,  had  struck  for  freedom.  Lamennais 
was  neither  a  republican  nor  a  revolutionist. 
To  him  religion  meant  everything  he  held 
dear.  He  longed  that  the  Catholic  Church 
should  have  power  as  it  has  authority,  but 
power  by  methods  apostolic  and  proper  to 
itself,  not  by  coercion  from  without  but  by 
persuasion  of  the  candid  soul.  He  had  pub- 
lished in  1819  his  "Essay  on  Indifference  in 
Matters  of  Religion,"  on  the  appearance  of 
which  Frayssinous,  the  Gallican  bishop, 
exclaimed,  "It  is  a  book  to  awaken  the  dead." 
It  electrified  the  reading  world  in  France  by 
its  sombre,  incisive  eloquence.  Its  author 
was  hailed  as  the  Catholic  Rousseau;  and 
like  his  Genevan  prototype  he  showed  him- 
self almost  morbidly  sensitive  to  criticism. 
Leo  XII.  welcomed  him  at  the  Vatican,  set 
up  the  French  apologist's  portrait  in  his 
private  room,  and  as  it  would  seem,  created 
him  cardinal  "//?,  petto";  but  he  was  not  al- 
lowed by  the  French  Government  to  announce 
his  elevation. 

On  April  20,  1820,  the  extraordinary 
sight  was  seen  of  a  priest  charged  before 
the  magistrates  in  Paris  by  the  public 
prosecutor,  under  a  Catholic  ministry,  with 


TO  THE  FALL  OF  ROME  221 

having,  by  a  recent  pamphlet,  "effaced  the 
boundaries  which  separate  spiritual  from 
temporal  power;  proclaimed  the  supremacy 
and  infallibility  of  the  Pope;  and  admitted 
in  the  Roman  Pontiff  the  right  of  deposing 
princes  and  releasing  their  subjects  from  the 
oath  of  fealty."  The  priest  was  the  Abbe 
de  Lamennais.  He  refused  the  Court's  juris- 
diction; reiterated  the  statements  of  which 
he  was  accused;  and  was  fined  thirty  francs 
— say  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  Various  pre- 
lates sent  up  loyal  addresses  to  the  throne. 
Lamennais  reminded  them  scornfully  that 
"there  was  in  the  world  a  person  named  the 
Pope."  So  low  had  Gallicanism  fallen!  The 
vision  of  a  Catholic  democracy  dawned  on 
him,  as  he  contemplated  Ireland  rising  with 
O'Connell  and  forcing  an  alien  Protestant 
Parliament  to  grant  emancipation.  Another 
country,  Belgium,  free  from  the  Gallican 
taint,  had  begun  its  fight  for  independence 
and  the  old  creed  which  it  was  speedily  to 
win.  But  neither  Belgians  nor  Irish  Catholics 
suffered  from  "the  terrible  disease  called 
Royal  ism." 

Such  were  the  sentiments  that  moved 
Lamennais  to  answer  the  ordinances  of  1828 
by  his  work  "On  the  Progress  of  the  Revo- 
lution  and   the   "War   against   the   Church," 


222    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

in  February,  1829.  It  insisted  as  a  right 
on  liberty  of  the  press,  of  education,  of 
conscience.  The  stir  which  it  created  was 
indescribably  great.  Its  author  had  crossed 
the  gulf  opened  in  1790  between  Catholicism 
and  the  Revolution.  The  Days  of  July 
followed,  and  liberty  was  promised  in  the 
Charter,  but  the  promise  was  broken  without 
delay.  Then  Lamennais  founded  L'Avenir 
to  propagate  his  doctrine,  and  UAgence 
Catholique  to  denounce  the  assaults  of  Govern- 
ment officials  on  religious  freedom.  Trials, 
condemnations,  could  not  stop  the  movement. 
Ministers  were  alarmed,  bishops  charged 
against  L'Avenir.  In  an  unlucky  moment 
three  "pilgrims  of  liberty"  made  their  way 
to  Rome — Lamennais,  Lacordaire,  Montalem- 
bert.  They  would  not  be  satisfied  until 
Gregory  XVI.  had  pronounced  judgment  on 
their  politico-religious  views. 

He  did  so  in  the  Encyclical  "Mirari  Vos  " 
(August  1.5,  1832).  His  judgment  was  a 
condemnation.  The  pilgrims  received  word 
of  it  at  Munich  and  submitted.  It  has  been 
well  said  that  their  appeal  to  Rome  was  "the 
first  act  in  that  long  agony  of  Gallicanism 
which  ended  with  the  Vatican  Council."  As 
regards  UAvcnir,  this  is  what  Montalcmbert 
wrote  long  afterwards:  "To  new  and  reason- 


TO  THE  FALL  OF  ROME  223 

able  ideas,  honest  in  themselves,  which  have 
for  the  last  twenty  years  been  the  daily  bread 
of  Catholic  polemics,  we  had  been  foolish 
enough  to  add  extreme  and  rash  theories,  and 
to  defend  both  by  means  of  an  absolute  logic 
such  as  will  be  sure  to  ruin,  if  it  does  not  dis- 
honour, every  cause." 

We  may  illustrate  these  words  from  the 
actual  situation.  Lamennais  had  committed 
himself  to  principles  which  betrayed  un- 
doubted tendencies  towards  anarchism;  and 
this  at  a  moment  when  Europe  was  shaken  by 
a  political  earthquake.  His  reasoning  was  as 
inexorable  as  his  temperament;  and  the  conse- 
quences might  have  been  disastrous  wherever 
Catholics  dwelt.  Risings  in  Belgium  and 
Poland  had  taken  place  after  the  Revolution 
of  July.  Two  months  of  interregnum  fol- 
lowed the  death  of  Pius  VIII.  on  the  last 
day  of  November,  1830.  A  monk  of  Camal- 
doli  was  elected  Pope  at  Candlemas,  1831; 
and  two  days  later  Bologna  revolted,  put  the 
Cardinal  Legate  in  prison,  and  set  up  a  gov- 
ernment animated  by  Carbonari  principles. 
The  Austrian  troops,  hardly  waiting  for  leave 
from  Rome,  entered  the  Legations.  France 
sent  a  detachment  to  Ancona.  The  rebels 
meanwhile  had  denounced  the  Pope's  tem- 
poral power  as  a  usurpation.    Was  this  a  time 


224    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

solemnly  to  approve  of  a  programme  which 
asserted  popular  sovereignty  in  the  crudest 
form,  and  preached  the  sacred  duty  of  resist- 
ance to  rulers  without  reserve  or  limits,  as  in 
the  columns  of  UAvenir  had  been  repeatedly 
done?  Gregory  XVI. ,  in  affirming  the 
traditional  principles  of  obedience  and 
authority,  had  a  strong  case;  nor  was  it 
difficult  to  show  that  the  Catholic  Church 
had  always  quoted  the  language  of  St.  Paul 
in  reference  to  "the  powers  that  be." 

A  further  observation  is  to  the  purpose. 
The  work  "De  Rcgimine  Principum,"  as- 
cribed to  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  and  the 
writings  of  Suarez  on  political  theories, 
may  be  taken  as  representing  another  aspect 
of  the  Catholic  doctrine,  in  which  an  "es- 
sential" democracy,  liberty,  and  right  of 
self-defence  are  maintained.  These  comple- 
mentary views  require  to  be  fully  con- 
sidered, if  we  would  know  what  is  the 
orthodox  tradition  as  a.  whole.  But  it  would 
be  too  much  to  expect  that  the  sovereign 
Pontiff  should,  on  a  practical  issue  and  in 
moments  of  crisis,  defeat  his  own  action  by 
an  academic  balancing  of  phrases  when  the 
time  rails  for  guidance,  and  social  interests 
are  at  stake.  Gregory  XVI.  spoke  as  the 
Church's  governor;  while  Lamennais  would 


TO  THE  FALL  OF  ROME  225 

have  persuaded  him  to  throw  in  his  lot  with 
French  democracy,  mostly  unbelieving,  and 
already  moving  towards  anarchical  Utopias. 

By  this  date  of  1S32  the  fiery  Breton  had 
himself  become  an  enemy  of  the  whole  social 
order.  He  was  meditating  and  had  begun 
to  write  "The  Words  of  a  Believer"  which, 
in  tones  and  colours  borrowed  from  the 
Apocalypse,  portended  a  third  Revolution. 
The  blood-stained  "Days  of  June"  in  1848, 
with  all  their  violence  and  atrocity,  cannot  be 
wholly  dissociated  from  the  passions  thus 
excited.  They  would  never  have  come  to  pass 
had  Pope  Gregory's  Encyclical  been  obeyed. 
Lamennais  went  his  way,  from  one  excess  of 
doctrine  to  another.  He  tasted  the  bitterness 
of  prison  at  Sainte  Pelagic;  his  last  years 
were  spent  in  poverty  and  isolation;  and 
he  lies  in  a  nameless  tomb  at  Pere  la  Chaise. 
"Nothing  must  mark  my  grave,"  said  the 
dying  man.  As  Savonarola  was  the  martyr 
of  the  Renaissance,  so  Lamennais  was  the 
victim  of  the  Revolution.  "Sunt  lacrymse 
rerum!" 

Although  reforms  had  been  urged  upon 
Gregory  XVI.  by  Metternich  and  the  Powers 
(May  21,  1881),  his  reign  passed  without 
undertaking  any  change.  Lamennais,  who 
saw  the  future  in  his  dreams,  prophesied  that 


226    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

a  beginning  would  be  made  "in  the  next 
pontificate."  Italy  was  once  more  producing 
notable  if  not  great  men.  In  182G  the 
"Promessi  Sposi" — a  romance  after  Scott, 
historical  and  patriotic — by  the  Lombard 
Manzoni  appeared.  In  1830  the  Genoese 
Mazzini  transformed  the  earlier  Carbonari 
movement  to  "young  Italy,"  insurgent, 
republican,  idealist.  The  "mysterious  and 
terrible  conspirator"  lay  under  sentence  of 
death  from  his  native  Government  until 
1SGG.  Among  the  devout  adherents  of  the 
Papacy  another  conception  ruled.  They  de- 
sired to  set  the  Holy  Father  in  his  mediaeval 
throne,  to  federate  the  Italian  States  under 
him  as  suzerain,  and  thus  to  restore  the  civil 
no  less  than  the  intellectual  primacy  which 
they  claimed  for  the  Peninsula. 

These  were  the  "new  Guelfs,"  led  by 
Gioberti,  of  Turin,  and  Rosmini,  of  Povereto, 
philosophic  priests  and  admirable  writers. 
Cesare  Balbo,  the  historian,  belonged  to  their 
school;  and  Austria  was  [heir  enemy.  But  so 
was  France.  The  battle  between  Gallicans 
and  LTtramontanes  wont  on  in  Paris;  with 
denial  of  free  education,  though  promised  by 
the  Charter;  with  episodes  like  the  anti- 
Jesuit  lectures  of  Quinet  and  Michelet,  which 
prompted  Guizot  to  demand  in  1815  at  Home 


POPE   PIUS  IX.  227 

that  the  Society  in  France  should  be  dissolved. 
It  is  matter  of  history  that  the  new  Guelfs 
were  not  friendly  to  the  Jesuits;  but  they 
believed  in  freedom.  Gregory  XVI.  had  no 
choice  but  to  yield;  and  Pellegrino  Rossi, 
June  23,  1845,  announced  to  his  Government 
that  the  French  Jesuit  province  would  be 
abolished.  An  unsuccessful  rising  of  Mazzini- 
ans  in  the  Legations  led  to  the  execution  of 
seven  conspirators  by  Cardinal  Vannicelli's 
orders.  At  Rimini  the  insurrection  failed 
likewise;  but  Farini  put  forth  a  manifesto 
which  renewed  the  demands  of  the  Great 
Powers  in  1831,  and  claimed  an  amnesty 
for  political  offences.  Nearly  two  thousand 
Papal  subjects,  it  is  said,  were  "in  exile, 
proscribed,  or  under  prosecution"  when 
Gregory  XVI.  died,  May  31,  184G. 


Section  II 
the  loeis  xvi.  of  the  papacy   (1846-1870) 

Then  the  change  came  which  Lamennais 
foresaw.  Pius  IX.  was  elected.  He  opened 
the  prison-doors,  and  men  cried  to  one 
another  that  at  last  the  Papa  Angelico  had 
appeared,  in  whose  reign  all  things  were  to 
be  made  new.    Handsome,  winning,  devout, 


228    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

kind-hearted,  of  large,  benevolent  designs, 
Giovanni  Maria  Mastai  took  the  Italians 
captive  at  once.  He  was  called  in  Vienna 
disdainfully  a  "reforming  pontiff";  and 
the  amnesty  provoked  Metternich  to  declare 
that  it  invited  robbers  to  set  the  house  on 
fire.  But  the  Pope  was  without  strong 
advisers,  and  he  had  no  definite  policy.  To 
put  himself  at  the  head  of  an  Italian  League 
was  not  in  his  thoughts.  The  Austrian 
Chancellor  knew  that  Europe  slept  on  a  vol- 
cano; Cesare  Balbo  warned  the  Holy  Father 
not  to  trust  in  popular  manifestations.  They 
continued  for  many  months;  a  council  of 
ministers  (July  12,  1847)  seemed  to  promise 
constitutional  government;  and  in  the  Forum 
was  heard  Stcrbini's  patriotic  chant,  the 
Roman  Marseillaise.  Not  Pius  IX.  but 
Rienzi;  nor  yet  the  new  Guelfs,  but  Mazzini 
and  young  Italy,  inspired  the  captains  who 
now  led  this  agitation.  Metternich  scut 
Austrian  troops  into  Ferrara.  The  Pope 
granted  a  representative  assembly,  the  Con- 
sulta,  with  responsible  ministers;  but  Mazzini 
was  conquering. 

On  January  15,  IS  18,  the  long  expected 
upheaval  of  the  Continent  began  with  a 
revolution  at  P  i-ormo.  The  R<  man  populace 
shouted,    "Down    with   a   clerical  ministry." 


POPE   TIUS   IX.  229 

Pius  IX.  granted  all  he  deemed  possible. 
Then  the  French  in  February  drove  out  Louis 
Philippe.  Constitutions  were  the  order  of 
the  day  in  Italy,  and  Charles  Albert  gave  his 
Sardinians  the  "Statuto"  which  was  destined 
to  grow  into  the  law  of  the  whole  country 
under  Victor  Emmanuel.  The  new  Papal 
Statute  was  published  on  March  14,  1848. 
It  could  not  hinder  the  enforced  retirement 
of  the  Jesuits  from  Rome.  Metternich  had 
been  overthrown  and  was  a  fugitive  in  Eng- 
land. The  Piedmontese  marched  against 
Austria,  camped  in  the  plains  of  Lombardy. 
Detachments  of  the  Papal  army,  blessed  by 
Pius  IX.,  were  joining  the  devout  and  chival- 
rous Sardinian  King,  Charles  Albert.  Would 
the  Pope  don  the  harness  of  Julius  II., 
and  help  to  drive  the  Barbarians  out  of 
Venice  which  they  had  usurped,  from  the 
Lombard  cities  where  their  rule  was  de- 
tested? Rosmini,  "the  most  enlightened 
priest  in  Italy,"  held  the  war  to  be  a  just 
one;  but  he  deprecated  its  renewal  by  Pied- 
mont alone;  he  drew  up  a  plan  for  the  con- 
federation of  Italian  States  under  the  Pope; 
and  meanwhile  he  strongly  approved  of 
the  allocution  (April  29,  1848)  in  which 
Pius  declined  to  fight  against  a  Christian 
Power. 


230    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

At  Turin  confusion  reigned;  ministries 
rose  and  fell  from  one  month  to  another. 
Public  voices  charged  the  Vatican  with 
deserting  the  national  cause.  In  Rome  a 
decided  anti-clerical  cabinet  was  formed  by 
Mamiani.  The  other  illustrious  priest,  Gio- 
berti,  who  shared  with  Rosmini  fame  and 
influence,  made  a  triumphal  progress  to  and 
from  the  Eternal  City  during  these  weeks; 
but  he  was  by  now  devoted  to  the  attainment 
of  "Italia  una,"  with  or  without  the  Pope. 
Rosmini  held  to  his  idea  of  a  Federal  union. 
Sent  by  Charles  Albert  to  the  Holy  Father 
in  August,  1848,  and  promised  the  Cardinal's 
hat,  this  high-minded  counsellor  of  modera- 
tion could  only  look  on  at  the  approaching 
catastrophe,  due  in  the  main  to  Italians 
themselves,  who  would  not  combine  or  cease 
their  quarrelling  while  Austria  took  up  arms 
once  more.  Pellegrino  Rossi,  named  Prime 
Minister  by  the  Pope  on  September  G,  was 
murdered  by  a  set  of  conspirators  on  the 
stairs  of  the  Cancellaria,  when  he  was  entering 
the  hall  of  Parliament,  November  15,  1848. 
The  assembly  took  no  notice,  and  "passed 
to  the  order  of  the  day."'  Two  days  later 
the  Quirinal  was  besieged  by  a  howling  mob, 
determined  to  massacre  the  Swiss  guard  and 
take  the  Pope  prisoner.     His  secretary  was 


POPE   PIUS  IX.  231 

shot  by  his  side  when  Pius  appeared  on  the 
great  balcony.  Mazzinianism  had  conquered 
by  the  use  of  the  dagger.  On  November  24 
the  Pope  in  disguise  fled  to  Gaeta  and  the 
Xing  of  Naples. 

In  this  interval  France  had  undergone  the 
agony  of  a  social  uprising  known  as  the 
"Days  of  June";  the  millions  in  alarm 
chose  for  their  President  Louis  Bonaparte 
on  December  10,  184S.  The  Austrians  over- 
powered Charles  Albert  at  Novara,  March 
23  of  the  succeeding  year;  within  six  days 
the  Roman  Republic  was  proclaimed  from 
the  Capitol  by  Garibaldi,  triumvirs  were 
appointed,  and  Mazzini  became  master  of 
Rome.  In  Gaeta  the  Pope  lingered  doubtful 
of  his  course.  Two  men  strove  before  him  as 
in  the  arena  for  their  respective  policies — they 
were  Rosmini  and  Antonelli.  Rut  the  saintly 
philosopher  went  back,  without  his  Cardinal's 
hat,  to  Stresa,  defeated.  Of  his  victorious 
opponent  Marion  Crawford  wrote,  "Antonelli 
was  the  best  hated  man  of  his  day,  not  only 
in  Europe  and  Italy,  but  by  a  large  proportion 
of  Churchmen.  He  was  one  of  those  strong 
and  unscrupulous  men  who  appeared  every- 
where  in  Europe  as  reactionaries  in  opposition 
to  the  great  revolution.  On  a  smaller  scale 
lie  is  to  be  classed  with  Disraeli,  Metternich, 


232    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

Cavour,  and  Bismarck."  Named  to  the 
Sacred  College  in  June,  1847,  he  was  never 
ordained  priest.  From  now  onwards  until 
his  death,  November  C,  1S7G,  he  stood  at  the 
Pope's  right  hand,  unremoved  by  any  com- 
bination of  enemies  or  disasters  in  the  political 
sphere.  "He  was  a  fighter  and  a  schemer 
by  nature,"  says  Crawford  again.  His  de- 
spatches were  universally  admired,  and,  with 
an  army  behind  him,  Antonelli  might  have 
done  memorable  deeds.  At  no  time  a  Liberal, 
lie  resolved  that  Pius  IN.  should  return  to 
Rome  unfettered  by  constitutional  engage- 
ments. Rosmini  warned  him  that  this  was 
equivalent  to  losing  the  temporal  power; 
but  he  went  his  way. 

Catholics  in  France,  growing  more  and  more 
Papal,  urged  upon  the  Prince  President  that 
he  should  despatch  an  armed  expedition 
against  the  new  Roman  Republic,  which  was 
becoming  the  focus  of  European  disorder.  lie 
did  so.  But  the  motley  array  under  Garibaldi 
fought  well;  and  it  was  nut  until  July  3,  IS  If), 
that  General  Oudinot  made  his  entrance 
into  the  Eternal  City,  "when  from  Janiculan 
heights  thundered  the  cannon  of  France." 
•  ;:l(ii  and  his  troop  escaped  by  the 
Trasteverc,  being  reserved  for  greater  things. 
But  how  would  the  Pope  come  back  to  his 


POPE   PIUS   IX.  233 

capital,  of  which  General  Xiel  presented  him 
with  the  keys  at  Gaeta?  Antonelli  decided. 
The  Holy  Father  returned  April  12,  1850,  as, 
in  the  witty  language  of  the  Romans,  Pio 
Kono  the  Second,  to  whom  the  idea  of  reform 
was  a  dream  in  the  night  that  is  past.  A 
French  garrison  occupied  the  city;  the  Lega- 
tions were  held  by  Austria.  Charles  Albert, 
abdicating,  had  gone  away  to  die  in  Portugal. 
But  in  this  tragic  hour  the  makers  of 
Italian  unity  were  found.  A  statesman,  a 
king,  and  a  freebooter,  wrought  out  this 
drama  between  them.  The  statesman  was 
Cavour,  the  king  Victor  Emmanuel,  the  free- 
booter Garibaldi.  And  Piedmont,  the  Italian 
Macedon,  was  to  accomplish  a  design  to  the 
conception  of  which  Dante,  Rienzi,  Machia- 
velli,  Cawsar  Borgia,  Napoleon,  Manzoni, 
Gioberti,  had  in  their  several  ways  given  form 
and  substance.  Manzoni,  in  183G,  had  de- 
clared to  Montalembert  that  a  united  Italy 
under  the  House  of  Savoy  was  the  one  solu- 
tion. Gioberti,  leaving  his  Guelfism,  had 
pointed  to  the  same  royal  house  in  expecta- 
tion of  its  future  expansion,  and  proclaimed 
its  leadership.  The  proverb  ran,  "Savoy  will 
eat  iii)  the  Italian  artichoke,  leaf  by  leaf." 
Gioberti  was  no  great  politician.  But  Cavour, 
who  now  took  Piedmont  in  hand,  united  policy 


234    PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES 

with  daring,  and  when  he  assailed  Austria 
next,  it  would  be  with  the  arms  of  France. 

Yet  Cavour  made  the  old  Rcgalist  mistake, 
and  it  cost  him  dear.  For  the  modern  State 
abroad,  Henry  VIII. 's  legislation  has  a  fatal 
charm;  but  the  language  employed  in  repro- 
ducing it  is  taken  from  the  Declaration  of 
the  Rights  of  Man.  So  it  was  that  Victor 
Emmanuel  in  1849  announced  his  intention 
of  putting  in  force  the  great  principle  of 
equality  before  the  law,  meaning  to  abolish 
clerical  immunities  and  monastic  institutions, 
and  to  bring  in  "civil  marriage," — this  last 
measure  a  serious  blow  at  the  Church  in  his 
dominions,  where  the  people  had  always  been 
profoundly  Catholic.  The  author  of  the  new 
projects,  Siccardi,  was  despatched  to  Pius  IX., 
then  in  exile  at  Portici;  but  he  could  not 
win  the  Pontiff's  assent.  Troubles  ensued; 
Cardinal  Franzoni  and  the  Archbishop  of 
Cagliari  were  thrown  into  prison;  Cavour, 
the  henchman  of  Siccardi,  was  obliged  to 
resign.  But  he  soon  became  Foreign  Minis- 
ter, and  these  laws  were  all  passed.  The 
Pope,  on  July  2G,  1855,  uttered  the  great  ex- 
communication against  every  one  concerned 
in  them.  Between  Cavour  and  the  Temporal 
Power  it  was  now  a  struggle  to  the  death. 
His  anti-clerical  attitude,  however,  gave  the 


POPE   PIUS   IX.  235 

Holy  See  an  advantage,  and,  as  will  appear 
in  due  course,  led  to  the  violent  solution  by 
cannon-shot  in  September,  1870,  of  the  Ro- 
man Question.  Cavour  professed  Liberal  sen- 
timents, but  he  was  resolved — they  are  his 
own  words — not  to  suffer  an  Ultramontane 
Church  to  grow  up,  relying  on  the  people, 
such  as  he  beheld  in  Ireland  or  Belgium. 
The  traditions  of  Joseph  II.  of  Austria  had 
been  transplanted  long  ago  into  Sardinian 
seminaries;  and  they  made  of  Piedmont  an 
enemy  whom  the  Pope  soon  recognized  as 
more  dangerous  than  Mazzini. 

The  futile  Crimean  War  gave  Cavour  his 
chance;  he  seized  it  boldly.  By  agreement 
in  January,  1855,  Sardinia,  which  had  no 
interest  at  stake  in  the  Orient,  joined  the 
allied  Western  Powers.  At  the  Congress  of 
1856,  held  in  Paris,  the  Piedmontese  min- 
ister demanded  that  Austria  should  withdraw 
from  the  Legations  and  a  lay  Government 
rule  them  in  the  Pope's  name.  Lord  Claren- 
don, the  English  envoy,  used  strong  language 
in  condemnation  of  the  Vatican,  to  which 
Antonelli  replied.  The  Emperor  of  the 
French  wavered,  now  and  always,  between  a 
policy  inspired  by  Lis  Catholic  adherents, 
and  a  policy  of  advance  which  was  called  for 
by  the  Liberals  ail  over  Europe.     His  letter 


236    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

in  1849  to  Edgar  Xey,  requiring  the  Holy 
Father  to  grant  a  lay  administration,  was  an 
unredeemed  pledge.  In  1857  Pius  IX.  made 
the  last  Papal  progress  through  his  northern 
states.  He  was  kindly  received,  hut  did  not 
mention  the  word  reform.  Antonelli  had  no 
programme;  he  waited  simply  on  Providence. 
A  Roman  conspirator  and  exile,  Orsini, 
brought  the  situation  to  a  crisis  on  January 

II,  1858,  by  attempting  the  life  of  Xapoleon 

III.  in  the  open  day  as  he  was  driving  to  the 
opera.  Condemned  to  death,  Orsini  ad- 
dressed the  Emperor  in  an  historic  letter  on 
February  11,  pleading  for  the  liberation  of 
Italy.  Cavour  turned  the  whole  incident 
adroitly  against  Rome;  he  met  Xapoleon 
secretly  at  Plombieres,  July  20,  1858;  and  a 
kingdom  of  twelve  millions,  from  the  Alps  to 
the  Adriatic,  was  designed  under  the  house  of 
Savoy.  War  was  in  immediate  prospect. 
The  Temporal  Power  had  been  supported  by 
a  truce  between  the  two  empires  on  whose 
armed  occupation  Antonelli  relied.  If  they 
fought,  and  Austria  were  beaten,  the  Pope's 
richest  provinces  would  be  lost,  a  new  Lom- 
bard Kingdom  set  up  not  far  from  the  gates  of 
Rome.  ?\ow  then  a  French  army  landed  at 
(ienoa  in  May,  1850.  The  victory  of  Magenta 
followed,  and  on  June  11  the  Austrian  troops 


POPE   PIUS   IX.  237 

left  Bologna.  "It  was  the  spark  which  set 
all  Italy  ablaze."  The  Legations  declared  for 
Victor  Emmanuel;  a  revolt  at  Perugia  was 
quelled,  not  without  bloodshed;  the  Peace 
of  Villa  Franca  satisfied  neither  French 
Liberals  nor  Italian  patriots;  and  Cavour 
resigned.  Farini  constructed  the  "interim" 
State  of  Emilia. 

Still  halting  between  two  policies,  Napoleon 
talked  of  an  Italian  Federation  with  Pius  IX. 
for  its  president.  The  Pope  declined;  French 
Catholics  were  enraged  with  a  Government 
that  wanted  to  despoil  the  Holy  See;  and 
to  no  Congress  would  a  Papal  representative 
be  accredited  unless  the  former  boundaries 
of  its  dominions  were  guaranteed.  This  was 
the  celebrated  "Non  possumus."  An  En- 
cyclical letter  in  January,  18G0,  rejected  the 
Emperor's  plan,  while  Dupanloup  of  Orleans 
and  Pie  of  Poitiers  answered  his  pamphlets 
in  uncompromising  terms.  The  temporal 
power  might  fall,  but  it  was  utterly  destroy- 
ing Gallieanism.  Everywhere  Catholics  held 
meetings  to  express  their  abhorrence  of  the 
Revolution  and  their  devoted  attachment  to 
the  Holy  Father.  An  English  convert, 
Henry  Edward  Manning,  drew  the  notice  of 
all  by  his  vehement  defence  of  Papal  prin- 
ciples.    Such  an  explosion  of  enthusiasm  on 


238    PAPACY  AXD   MODERN  TIMES 

behalf  of  St.  Feter's  successor  had  not  been 
witnessed  in  modern  history.  The  Pope  was 
taking  up  on  different  lines  that  movement  of 
democracy  which  he  had  blessed  in  184G; 
and,  though  Italians  were  divided,  the  Cath- 
olic Church  answered  even  passionately  to  his 
impulse.  He  had  lost  the  Legations;  he  was 
master,  as  though  Innocent  III.  had  risen 
again,  of  believing  multitudes  in  Europe  and 
America.  The  year  I860  marks  a  revival  of 
Roman  power,  spiritual  and  democratic,  which 
has  gone  forward  ever  since  without  pause. 

But  the  political  fifth  act  was  not  to  be 
avoided.  Bishops  might  send  up  addresses 
by  the  hundred  to  Rome;  men  of  such  unlike 
temper  as  Veuillot  and  Lacordaire,  Villemain 
and  De  Sacy,  Disraeli,  and  Guizot,  might 
insist,  as  if  at  a  General  Council,  on  the 
necessity  for  the  Pope's  temporal  independ- 
ence and  territorial  sovereignty;  they  could 
not  prevent  the  conquest  of  the  Two  Sicilies 
by  Garibaldi;  or  Cavour's  daring  stroke,  the 
march  of  Italian  troops  towards  Ancona;  or 
the  defeat  of  Lamoriciere  and  his  Papal 
forces,  however  gallant  their  behaviour,  at 
Castel  Fidardo,  September  18,  1SC0.  Yet, 
says  De  Cesarc,  who  did  not  love  the  old 
re  me,  no  occasion  or  pretext  presented  itself 
for  declaring  war  on  the  Pope,  invading  his 


POPE   PIUS   IX.  239 

provinces,  breaking  up  his  army,  and  so 
marching  on  Naples.  But  Cavour  was  not 
deterred  by  these  obstacles.  Admiral  Persano 
bombarded  and  took  Ancona.  On  October 
26,  18G0,  Garibaldi  met  Victor  Emmanuel 
at  Teano,  and  saluted  him  as  King  of  Italy. 

The  first  Italian  Parliament  assembled  on 
February  18,  1861,  at  Turin.  France,  getting 
Nice  and  Savoy,  had  consented  to  the  final 
incorporation  of  Romagna  with  Victor  Em- 
manuel's new  kingdom.  To  the  Holy  See 
was  left,  under  French  protection,  the  Patri- 
mony or  old  Duchy  of  Rome,  largely  a  desert, 
and  some  half  million  of  subjects.  Inter- 
national law  could  not  justify  the  Piedmont- 
ese  invasion;  Conservatives  smiled  at  the 
"plebiscites"  which  followed  obediently  where 
the  victor's  sword  pointed.  Romagna  had 
always,  except  during  the  Austrian  occupa- 
tion, enjoyed  Home  Rule;  but  Cavour,  in 
October,  1860,  affirming  the  independence  of 
Italy,  declared  that  Rome  must  be  its  capital. 
The  word  was  spoken.  And  "a  Free  Church 
in  a  Free  State"  was  held  out  to  the  Pope  in 
exchange  for  his  sovereignty  of  a  thousand 
years. 

Negotiations  were  at  once  set  on  foot. 
Pius  IX.,  without  allies  or  auxiliaries,  listened 
to  Cavour's  proposals.     Antonelli  permitted 


240    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

a  sort  of  protocol  to  be  discussed;  and  Pas- 
saglia,  the  famous  ex-Jesuit,  was  conducting 
the  great  business,  as  it  seemed,  to  a  success- 
ful end.  But  here  the  Siccardi  laws  warned 
Pius  that  if  the  Italians  came  to  Rome  they 
would  suppress  the  monasteries,  confiscate 
Church  property,  and  in  spite  of  their  liberal 
formula,  make  the  clergy  a  department  of 
State.  "Jacobin  decrees"  at  Naples  and 
Palermo  confirmed  this  judgment.  He  roused 
himself  to  deliver  an  allocution,  March  18, 
1861,  in  which  he  flung  back  the  attempts  at 
an  insidious  reconciliation  based  on  robbery, 
and  refused  to  come  to  terms  with  it.  Ca- 
rom' died  on  June  6,  and  the  Roman  Ques- 
tion entered  its  last  phase. 

A  convention  between  France  and  the 
King  of  Italy  was  signed  in  September,  1804, 
binding  the  latter  to  respect  what  was  left  of 
the  Papal  territories,  and  the  French  to  with- 
draw their  garrison  by  degrees  from  Rome. 
Rut  Napoleon  required  that  a  new  capital 
should  be  definitely  chosen,  as  some  guaran- 
tee of  peace.  The  Government,  accordingly, 
moved  down  to  Florence.  By  the  end  of 
December,  1800,  all  the  French  troops  had 
left  Roman  soil.  No  stir  was  made.  The 
people  of  the  Eternal  City  were  little  disposed 
to  embark  on  a  revolution;    thev  felt  a  sin- 


POPE   PIUS  IX.  241 

cere  attachment  to  Pius  IX.,  who  treated 
them  kindly,  whatever  his  officials  might  do; 
and,  as  Napoleon  III.  believed,  they  would 
never  rise  of  themselves.  Neither  did  they. 
Garibaldi  formed  committees  of  insurrection, 
and  openly  undertook  the  liberation  of  Rome, 
while  Rattazzi,  the  new  premier,  looked  on. 
The  general  was  interned  September  24,  1867, 
in  his  island  of  Caprera;  but  his  son  Menotti 
crossed  the  Papal  frontier,  and  there  was 
fighting  at  Monte  Libretti.  While  Napoleon 
was  hesitating  Garibaldi  escaped,  traversed 
Tuscany,  and  captured  Monte  Rotondo,  less 
than  twenty  miles  from  the  gates  of  Rome. 
The  French  Catholics,  the  Empress,  the 
leader  of  the  bishops,  Dupanloup,  insisted  on 
sending  help  to  the  Holy  Father.  Napoleon's 
lieutenant,  Rouher,  declared  in  the  Chamber 
amid  applause  that  the  Italians  should 
"never"  enter  Rome.  This  "jamais"  was 
not  forgotten  when  Napoleon  sought  for  an 
ally  at  Florence  in  1870.  The  expedition 
sailed.  Garibaldi  had  drawn  close  to  the 
Porta  Salara,  but  Rome  would  nut  rise;  the 
free  companies  which  he  brought  were  drift- 
ing in  all  directions;  and,  as  he  was  retiring 
upon  Tivoli,  November  3,  1867,  a  detachment 
of  French,  coming  to  aid  the  Papal  troops, 
defeated  him  at  Montana.     His  army  broke 


242    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

and  fled.     The  September  Convention  was 
no  more. 

That  insignificant  skirmish  at  Mentana  had 
world-wide  consequences.  It  brought  back 
the  French  to  Castel  Sant'  Angelo,  where  they 
proved  a  fatal  hindrance  to  Italian  unity  as  it 
was  now  conceived.  It  gave  time  for  the 
assembling  of  the  Vatican  Council,  and  the 
passing  of  those  decrees  by  which  Gallican 
principles  were  stricken  to  death  and  the 
Pope  was  proclaimed  infallible  ex  cathedra,  in 
St.  Peter's  Chair.  Like  the  affair  of  Bouvincs, 
it  was  fought  with  a  handful  of  soldiers,  but 
has  proved  to  be  one  of  the  decisive  battles 
of  the  world.  For  the  French  empire  and 
dynasty  Mentana  was  a  disaster,  coming  after 
its  moral  defeats  in  the  Danish,  Mexican, 
and  Austrian  wars,  every  one  of  which  had 
darkened  its  fame  and  lessened  its  influence. 
Italian  opinion  would  not  suffer  a  single 
regiment  of  Bersaglieri  to  make  common 
cause  with  French  generals  in  1870,  who  had 
boasted  in  1SG7  that  the  chasscpots  had  gone 
oil'  of  themselves  on  the  approach  of  Gari- 
baldi's volunteers.  Austria,  now,  as  well  as 
Italy,  demanded  that  Koine  should  lie  left 
open  to  the  Sardinian  advance.  Napoleon 
could  not  agree;  and  his  efforts  to  create 
alliances   against    Prussia   were  broken   upon 


POPE  PIUS  IX.  243 

this  denial.     Mentana  was  the  prelude  to 

Sedan. 

But  if  the  Temporal  Power  from  this  day 
was  visibly  doomed  to  disappear,  a  movement 
parallel  but  in  the  contrary  direction  had 
been  proceeding,  which  would  exalt  beyond 
measure  the  cause  of  Papal  Rome.  Since  the 
return  from  Gaeta  pilgrims  had  thronged  to 
the  Holy  City  as  never  before.  Three  great 
meetings  of  bishops,  in  1854,  18GL2,  and  1867, 
had  assured  Pius  IX.  of  his  unbounded  influ- 
ence over  the  Catholic  world.  His  reply  to 
the  September  Convention  had  been  the 
Encyclical  "Quanta  Cura,"  and  the  Syllabus 
or  Index  of  propositions  condemned  during 
his  pontificate,  which,  though  chiefly  a  con- 
servative document  in  accordance  with  prin- 
ciples of  authority  received  everywhere,  was 
cleverly  turned  by  the  revolutionaries,  whom 
it  struck  hard,  into  an  attack  upon  civiliza- 
tion. Bishop  Dupanloup  showed  its  true 
meaning,  and  three  hundred  and  sixty  bish- 
ops wrote  to  signify  their  agreement  with 
the  Bishop  of  Orleans.  French  prelates  led 
the  Church  at  this  time,  somewhat  as  their 
cavalry  ride  into  battle,  a  pas  de  charge.  But 
in  views  they  were  not  of  one  mind.  Some 
Gallicans  were  left;  the  ambiguous  party 
called  Libera]  Catholics  had  a  policy  of  their 


244    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

own.  Among  Germans,  and  especially  at 
Munich,  there  was  a  school  which  had  never 
been,  or  had  ceased  to  be,  ultramontane,  con- 
trolled by  the  historian  Dollinger.  Moderate 
men  asked  for  a  Council  in  the  hope  of  certain 
reforms.  On  prelates  like  Manning,  Martin, 
Bonnechose,  Deschamps;  on  laymen  such  as 
Veuillot  and  Ward,  it  was  borne  in  by  the 
course  of  events  that  to  save  society  spiritual 
authority  must  be  concentrated  in  the  hands 
of  the  Pope,  whom  all  acknowledged  as  the 
highest  representative  of  Christian  principles 
in  the  world.  These  writers  had  their  own 
way  of  reasoning,  no  doubt;  their  moving 
impulse,  however,  was  quite  as  much  a  social 
necessity  as  a  deduction  from  grounds  of 
doctrine;  and  its  perfect  expression  was  given 
by  Joseph  de  Maistre  when  he  published  his 
treatise  "Du  Pape"  after  Napoleon's  down- 
fall. The  Vatican  Council  was  intended  to 
protect  Catholic  interests  from  anarchy,  by 
completing  the  work  begun  at  Florence  and 
left  unfinished  at  Trent,  of  defining  "St. 
Peter's  privileges"  in  his  successor. 

This  was  done,  amid  conflicts  into  which 
we  need  not  enter,  between  December  8, 
18(59,  and  July  18,  1870.  No  larger  Council 
of  Ecclesiastics  has  ever  met.  All  continents 
were  represented.    The  extraordinary  growth 


POPE   PIUS   IX.  245 

of  Catholicism  in  free  countries  was  evidenced 
by  new  hierarchies  in  England,  Canada,  the 
United  States,  the  British  Empire  at  large. 
Its  persistence  under  suffering  was  a  jewel 
on  the  foreheads  of  Irish,  South  American, 
and  missionary  bishops,  who  saw  one  another 
face  to  face  in  what  seemed  to  devout  on- 
lookers the  full  assembly  of  the  Saints.  A 
young  American  Bishop  of  Richmond,  Vir- 
ginia, who  has  lived  to  be  Cardinal  Gibbons 
of  Baltimore,  could  tell  us  lately  that  the 
Church,  neither  persecuted  nor  favoured  by 
civil  power,  in  those  United  States  now  reck- 
ons twenty-two  millions,  and  is  on  the  way  to 
become  the  largest  as  well  as  the  strongest  of 
religious  associations  in  the  Western  world. 

Against  these  mighty  currents  what  could 
the  Gallican  or  the  Regalist  achieve  with  his 
worn-out  traditions?  One  of  the  wisest  ob- 
servations ever  made  on  the  whole  subject  is 
that  of  Count  von  Moltke — "The  future  of 
Rome  does  not  depend  on  Rome  itself,  but 
on  the  direction  that  religious  development 
will  take  in  other  countries."  And  Lord 
Acton  has  written,  "Pius  IX.  knew  that  in 
ah  that  procession  of  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  bishops  one  idea  prevailed.  Men  whose 
word  is  powerful  in  the  centres  of  civiliza- 
tion,   men   who   three   months   before   were 


210    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

confronting  martyrdom  amongst  barbarians, 
preachers  at  Notre  Dame,  professors  from 
Germany,  Republicans  from  Western  Amer- 
ica, men  with  every  sort  of  training  and  every 
sort  of  experience,  had  come  together  as  con- 
fident and  eager  as  the  prelates  of  Rome,  to 
hail  the  Pope  infallible."  But  with  his  doc- 
trinal authority  went  an  ordinary  supreme 
jurisdiction,  which  not  only  shattered  in 
pieces  the  Articles  of  1682,  but  enabled  the 
Pope  to  govern  local  Churches  as  the  Bishop 
of  bishops.  Moreover,  in  the  presence  of  a 
universal  dissolving  movement,  anti-social  no 
less  than  anti-Christian,  a  perpetual  dictator 
was  needed,  and  who  could  it  be  save  the 
Pontifex  Maximus?  These  measures  were 
taken  as  by  foreboding  of  the  crisis  that  came 
suddenly  upon  Europe.  The  last  session  of 
the  Vatican  Council  was  held  in  St.  Peter's 
amid  thunder  and  lightning  on  a  July  day, 
while  France  and  Germany  rushed  to  arms. 
The  war  which  was  to  decide  trie  temporal 
fate  of  Rome  had  been  declared  three  days 
previously  (July  15,  1870).  On  the  morrow 
it  broke  out. 

In  that  burning  summer-time,  we  who  were 
staying  in  Rome  saw  the  French  bishops 
depart,  and  knew  that  the  French  soldiers 
would  soon  follow  them  from  the  Aventine. 


POPE   PIUS   IX.  247 

They  went,  those  heroic  young  men,  to  be 
defeated  in  the  battles  of  August;  and  the 
Papal  Zouaves,  who  were  faithful  to  the  last, 
were  destined  to  win  the  field  of  Patay.  But 
no  one  was  acquainted  with  the  mind  of  Ger- 
many; and  on  that  mind  we  waited,  while 
the  Empire  was  falling  to  pieces.  Thirty 
thousand  Italian  troops  kept  a  watch  on  the 
frontier,  ready  to  break  in  if  the  Romans 
would  seize  Rome.  But,  as  ever,  the  Romans 
did  no  more  than  buy  flags  which  might  be 
hung  out  according  to  fortune,  the  Pope's 
colours  so  long  as  they  were  needed,  the 
tricolour  invented  long  ago  by  Republican 
Bologna  when  King  Victor's  regiments  should 
come  marching  in.  The  King  himself  was 
torn  between  feelings  of  gratitude  to  France 
and  the  conviction  that  if  he  did  not  put  an 
end  to  the  Temporal  Power  it  would  cost 
him  his  throne.  The  Revolution  was  alert 
in  Naples  and  Milan.  But  the  ghost  of  the 
September  Convention  vanished  when  a 
Republic  succeeded  to  the  Empire.  Count 
Bismarck  had  purchased  Italian  neutrality 
by  giving  a  free  hand  to  the  Government  at 
Florence.  After  a  moment  of  hesitation 
ministers  were  allowed  to  act.  Ponza  di  San 
Martino  brought  a  royal  letter  to  the  Vatican, 
in  which  "with  the  devotion  of  a  son,  the 


248    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

faith  of  a  Catholic,  the  loyalty  of  a  king,  and 
the  heart  of  an  Italian,"  Victor  Emmanuel 
told  Pius  IX.  that  he  intended  to  occupy  the 
Papal  States.  The  Pope  answered  by  a 
single  word — "Alight  then  comes  before 
right."  When  for  the  last  time,  at  the  Piazza 
dei  Termini,  he  made  an  official  appearance 
in  public,  the  Holy  Father  was  greeted  by  the 
Romans  with  frantic  enthusiasm.  But  they 
had  their  two  sets  of  flags  ready. 

On  September  11  General  Cadorna,  who 
had  once  served  in  the  sanctuary,  crossed  the 
Papal  boundaries  and  made  straight  for 
Rome.  Alazzini  lay  in  prison  at  Gaeta; 
Garibaldi  in  Caprera  was  closely  watched. 
The  Italian  Government  had  resolved  that 
none  but  itself  should  crown  the  edifice  built 
up  during  twenty  years  of  war  and  diplomacy 
to  the  honour  of  Savoy.  The  new  French 
Republic  called  away  the  Antibes  legion  of 
volunteers  on  September  1.3,  not  wishing  that 
their  tricolour  should  be  seen  in  conflict  with 
the  Piedmontese.  From  all  European  capi- 
tals word  arrived  in  Florence  allowing  the 
invasion  to  proceed.  The  Pope  stood  alone. 
"Ye.'iit  siimma  dies  et  ineluctabile  tempus." 
It  was  the  last  day  of  his  earthly  dominion. 

September  L20,  1870,  dawned  in  a  pure  .sky, 
with  gulden  fringes  cdxhiy:  the  clouds  that 


POPE  PIUS  IX.  249 

lay  along  on  the  Latin  Hills.  It  had  been 
a  week  of  dust  and  sunshine  in  beleaguered 
Rome.  Count  Arnim,  the  Prussian,  had 
gone  busily  to  and  fro  between  the  camp  out- 
side and  the  Vatican,  desirous  that  a  peace- 
able entry  might  be  made,  and  the  clatter 
of  artillery  might  not  announce  to  Europe  this 
portentous  violation  of  domicile.  His  half- 
smiling  intervention  had  failed.  On  the 
evening  of  September  19,  the  Holy  Father 
drove  across  Rome  to  the  Piazza  of  St.  John 
Lateran,  ascended  the  Scala  Santa,  and  gave 
his  blessing  to  the  troop  which  held  that  gate. 
lie  was  never  afterwards  seen  in  the  streets  of 
Rome.  General  Kanzler  had  it  in  command 
to  resist  until  wall  or  gate  was  battered  down. 
And  so,  in  the  clear  air  of  that  September 
morning,  the  twentieth,  we  saw  the  smoke  of 
the  cannonade  rise  like  an  exhalation  from 
Porta  Salara  round  to  Porta  Pia,  and  at  other 
gales  there  was  a  feigned  attack;  but  the 
headlong  General  Bixio  furiously  assailed  the 
Porta  San  Pancrazio,  while  his  grenades 
struck  the  windows  of  the  Vatican  and  his 
artillery  accompanied  with  its  volleys  the 
3 !  ass  which  Pius  IX.  was  saying  in  his  private 
chapel.  The  corps  diplomatique  waited  round 
him,  having  no  commission  but  to  look  on. 
Some  misunderstanding  prolonged  the  resist- 


250    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

ance  and  multiplied  the  casualties.  At  ten 
o'clock  we  saw  the  white  flag  waving  high 
over  St.  Peter's  dome.  We  heard  afar  off 
from  our  College  roof  the  thunder  of  the 
captains  and  the  shouting,  as  through  the 
shattered  walls  of  Porta  Pia  streamed  in  a 
mixed  array  of  soldiers,  refugees,  camp- 
followers,  along  the  street  afterwards  named 
from  the  Twentieth  of  September.  Early  in 
the  afternoon  we  saw  Italian  standards  float- 
ing from  the  Capitol.  Rome  had  once  con- 
quered Italy.  Now  Italy  had  conquered 
Rome. 

The  usual  plebiscite  followed.  By  national 
decree  the  City  of  the  Popes  was  elevated  or 
degraded  into  the  chief  town  of  a  modern 
State,  created  yesterday.  King  Victor  Em- 
manuel broke  his  way  with  crowbars  into  the 
Quirinal.  Monasteries  were  transformed  into 
ministries,  said  the  satire-loving  Romans.  The 
Jesuits  were  suppressed,  and  their  escutcheon 
over  the  great  door  of  the  Roman  College  was 
hammered  to  pieces.  The  Siccardi  law,  de- 
spite guarantees,  was  extended  to  the  former 
Papal  States,  justifying  Pius  IX.  in  his  pre- 
sentiments. But  he,  without  so  much  as  the 
Leonine  City  left  to  him,  put  aside  civil  lists 
and  legal  establishments,  living  on  the  alms  of 
the  faithful,  visited  in  his  Apostolic  prison  by 


POPE   PIUS   IX.  251 

multitudes,  year  after  year,  who  bore  witness 
to  his  growing  religious  influence  over  the 
millions  for  whom  they  were  ambassadors. 
The  King  died  on  January  9,  the  Pope  on 
February  7,  1878.  Pius  IX.  had  outlived  the 
"years  of  Peter";  and  he  had  followed  the 
Temporal  Power  to  its  grave. 

"No  human  pen,"  says  Lecky  in  a  fine 
passage,  "can  write  its  epitaph,  for  no 
imagination  can  adequately  realize  its  glories. 
In  the  eyes  of  those  who  estimate  the  great- 
ness of  a  sovereignty,  not  by  the  extent  of 
its  territory,  or  by  the  valour  of  its  soldiers, 
but  by  the  influence  which  it  has  exercised 
over  mankind,  the  Papal  government  has  had 
no  rival,  and  can  have  no  successor.  But 
though  we  may  not  fully  estimate  the  majesty 
of  its  past,  we  can  at  least  trace  the  causes  of 
its  decline."  He  goes  on  to  enumerate  them; 
but  the  sum  is  this — once  Religion  flourished 
by  means  of  establishments  and  coercive 
power,  now  politics  and  religion  are  divorced 
for  ever. 

But  let  us  not  confound  the  social  organism 
with  political  machinery.  It  remains  always 
true,  as  Auguste  Comte  perceived,  that  so- 
ciety rests  on  a  creed,  explicit  or  latent,  in 
which  its  members  are  united;  that  its  law  is 
ethics  and  its  standard  conscience.    True  like- 


252    PAPACY  AND   MODERN  TIMES 

wise  it  is  that  the  Pope  cannot  deny  his 
origin,  which  was  not  a  victory  of  the  strong 
arm,  but  was  due  to  the  free  immortal  spirit. 
lie  never  can  be  absorbed  by  the  absolute 
State,  for  he  is  the  pilgrim  of  eternity.  And 
thus,  a  prisoner  in  the  Vatican,  without 
kingdom  or  army,  Leo  XIII. ,  succeeding  im- 
mediately to  Pius  IX.,  began  and  ended  a 
reign  of  twenty-six  years,  the  most  brilliant 
in  its  manifestations  and  most  fruitful  in 
results  of  any  since  the  Sack  of  Rome.  Allow- 
ing that  American  forms  of  government  will 
more  and  more  prevail,  that  privilege  will 
give  place  to  liberty,  and  free  association 
limit  the  State  itself,  what  does  it  all  mean? 
Surely  the  triumph  of  principle  over  force, 
of  moral  influence  over  legal  enactment.  But 
so  it  was  that  the  Roman  Church  began, 
"presiding  in  love,"  as  said  St.  Ignatius  of 
Antioch;  so  did  she  attain  to  her  supremacy 
in  the  ages  called  of  Faith.  Her  appeal  is 
to  the  Cross. 

"  Christ  conquers,  Christ  reigns,  Christ  commands. 
Christ  defend  His  people  from  all  harm." 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


All  tho  subjects  handled  in  this  volume  may  bo  studied  from 
thi.1  orthodox  and  Roman  point  of  view  in  The  Catholic  Encyclo- 
■p  ili' i.  now  publishing  in  eighteen  volumes  at  New  York.  The 
Cambridge  Modern  History,  especially  on  the  Renaissance, 
Reformation,  and  French  Revolution,  covers  the  ground  from 
about  1450.  Gregorovius,  History  of  the  City  of  Rome,  extends 
from  fourth  to  sixteenth  century.  The  Papal  registers  are 
in  course  of  publication  from  the  period  of  Avignon. 

For  tho  prelude,  consult  Barry,  Papal  Monarchy;  Bryce, 
Holy  Roman  Empire;  Duchesne,  First  Period  of  the  Papal 
States  (Fr.) ;  Luchaire,  Innocent  III.  (Fr.). 

For  Avignon  and  Renaissance:  Pastor,  History  of  the  Popes, 
ton  volumes  (E.  Tr.),  is  indispensable.  Creighton,  same  title 
and  period;  Milman,  Latin  Christianity,  VI I. -XI.;  Symonds, 
Renaissance,  picturesque  but  unreliable;  Hefele,  Councils, 
for  Constance  and  Basle;  Honor,  Popes  of  Avignon  (Ger.) ; 
Valois,  France  and  the  Great  Schism  (Fr.);  Gardner,  E.  G., 
St.  Catherine  of  Siena;  Kitts,  E.  J.,  In  the  Days  of  the  Coun- 
cils and  Pope  John  XXIII.;  Gairdncr,  J.,  The  Lollards;  Voigt, 
Revival  of  Classical  Antiquity  (Ger.);  Miintz,  Art  and  the 
Papal  Court  (Fr.);  Burckhardt  or  Geiger  on  art  and  literature 
of  the  Renaissance;  (E.  Tr.);  Vaughan,  H.  M.,  Medici  Popes; 
Brosch,  Julius  II.  (Ger.);  Roscoe,  Leo  X.,  still  valuable; 
Kraus  on  Popes  and  Culture  in  Cambridge  History,  II.;  Lea, 
Inquisition  in  Middle  Ages;  Lilly,  W.  S.,  Renaissance  Types, 
Erasmus,  etc.,  Froudc  on  the  same  subject,  inaccurate.  Grego- 
rovius, Lucrezia  Borgia;  Villari,  Machiavclli  and  Savonarola 
(E.  Tr.);  Lucas,  Savonarola. 

For  Reformation  period:  Rankc,  History  of  Popes,  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  century,  with  Macaulay's  classic  review; 
Jansscns,  History  of  the  German  People  (E.  Tr.),  standard 
work;  Loa,  Inquisition  in  Spain;  Lord  Acton,  History  of 
Fn  ■  lorn,  Historical  Essays  and  Studies,  Lectures  on  Modern 
y;  all  deserving  careful  attention,  and  dealing  with 
Pcrs  'cution,  Temporal  Power.  Democracy;  Donifle  and  Grisar 
on  Luther  and  Luthcranism  (Ger.),  give  strong  Catholic  view; 
cor,  Reformation,  an  early  work;  Contributions  to  History, 
sixtt  cn::i  and  seventeenth  century  (Ger.),  after  1870;  Mohler, 
Symbolism  (E.  Tr.),  standard  work  on  Protestant  Formularies; 
Gasquet,  Henry  VIII.  and  Monasticism,  and  Eve  of  Reforma- 
tio?!; Bridgctt,  Lives  of  More  and  Fisher;  Gairdner,  J.,  English 
Ch  irch  in  Sixteenth  Century:  Sanders,  Origin  of  Anglican 
Schism  (E.  Tr.);  Thompson,  F.,  Life  of  St.  Ignatius  of  Loyola; 
253 


2.54  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Barry,  Cabin,  in  Catholic  Encyclopaedia;  Baird,  History  of 
Rise  of  Huguenots;  Law,  Catholic  Tractates  of  Sixteenth  Century; 
Maurenbrecher,  on  Charles  V .;  Maximilian  II.,  Catholic  Reform 
in    Germany,    etc.    (all    Ger.),    of   great    importance;    see    also 

Moller  (Lutheran),  Church  History  III.  on  same  subjects. 

There  is  no  general  history  of  the  Jesuits  in  English.  The 
French  by  Cretineau  July  has  many  faults.  The  Society 
published  its  own  in  six  portions  and  in  Latin,  down  to  1G20; 
it  is  printing  its  Monumenta  in  various  languagi  s,  1894  onwards. 
Pallavicini  and  Theiner  give  History  of  Council  of  Trent,  See 
also  Ward,  A.  W.,  The  Counter-Reformation,  in  Episodes  of 
Church  History. 

For  Callicanism  and  its  affinities:  St.  Beuve,  Port  Royal 
(Ft.)  is  the  best  literary  account  of  Jansenism.  Bossuet, 
Dcfenci  of  the  Declaration  (if  1682  (Lat.),  in  his  works;  Fleury, 
Church  History  and  new  minor  works  (opuscules.  Fr.) ;  Jervis, 
History  of  the  Galilean  Cliurch,  very  learned;  Midland.  Louis 
XIV.  and  Innocent  XI.  (Fr.) ;  De  Maistre,  hu  Pape  and 
L'Eglise  Gcdlicanc,  the  most  famous  treatment  of  whole 
question;  Hergenrother,  Catholic  Church  and  Christian  £  'e, 
E.  Tr.  by  Devas,  documentary  and  polemical,  best  modern 
work  on  the  Encyclical  and  Syllabus  of  1864;  Meyer,  Febronius 
(Ger.),  anti-Roman;  Haller,  Papacy  and  German  Catholic 
Reform  (Ger.). 

For  eighteenth  century  Free  Thought,  Lecky,  Ratio/ 
Leslie    Stephen,    under   above    heading;    Morley   on    Voltaire, 
Rousseau,    Diderot,    may    be    consulted,    all    partisans    of    the 
EnligJdenment.    Devas,  C.  V...  Key  to  the  World's  Progress,  takes 
the  Catholic  view,  and  criticizes  the  whole  movement. 

Since  French  Revolution:  Nielsen  (Lutheran  1  ishoj  I,  History 
of  Papacy  in  Xineteenth  Century  (E.  Tr.),  especially  volume  ii. 
Artaud  de  Montor,  History  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiffs  (Fr.); 
Consalvi  and  Pacca,  Memoirs  (Paeoa,  F.  Tr.);  Chateaubriand, 
Genius  of  Christianity  (Fr.) ;  Autobiography  (F.  Tr.  by  De 
Mattos);  D'Haussonville.  Xapejhon  and  Pius  1  i  I .  (Fr.);  Life 
of  Dollinger  (Ger.);  Capefi     ,  .  /,'••'  -  tti  ■     nid  i,   risP) 

:,    Lamennais;    and    i..'s    correspondence,     Words    of   a 

I:'    •"..!.'  '       (Fr.   :    Newman's  Apologia,    Es     ,    . 

.'    and    Historical,    Correspond,  nee;    Gioberti,    Life    en  id 

Li  tins  (Itah);  Rosmini,  Lit,    and  Roman  Miss 

'or  1,  M.,  .t   (  /.' 
Tivaroni,    a    Mazzinian,    History   of  the    Ilali< 

;  Countess  M.  Cesaresco,  /.  :- 
Kim:,  History  of  Italian  l-i'/:  C.  Cantu,  o 
p.  ■",  nre;  MazadeC.de,  Ca -our  (Fr.):and  C.'s 
I  i  ;•  ,  r,  y  :,  (■)  ire)  a  :  t:  .  i  ,rdos  (E. 
I.f.  of  Dupanloup  (K.  Tr.);  OIlivFr.  E.,  Th,  I. 
and  Church  and  Stat,  in  th,  Vatican  Council  (IT.);  Rro>ch, 
//"  '  •  ■■/  of  Pap  ■!  Sti'frs  //..  on  Pius  IX.:  and  Nun  r.l  •  :  ■  ■  -. 
Popedom  and  keel, siast'eal  States  (Ger.);  De  Cesare,  Last  Days 
of  Papal  Rome  (E.  Tr.). 


■  It  (It 

ah):  i 

ilso 

.  In 

Us; 

Ris, 

uto 

Italy 

;    Hoi 

ton 

in    I; 

rrespi 

r                1 

aide: 

ice ; 

./'■(  rat 

'•,  IT; .  1 

'  En  , 

.  i  re 

INDEX 


America,  89,  1S1-6,  201,  218,  245. 
Avignon,    31-59;     Popes    in,    44, 
49,   130. 

Councils,  Vienne,  56;  Pisa,  56; 
Constance,  59-03;  Basle,  69-71; 
Lateran  Fifth,  97,  98;  Trent, 
129,  152;  Vatican,  244-6. 

Dante,  37. 

Emperors,  Roman,  Augustus,  11; 
Nero,  13;  Constantino,  15; 
Justinian,  27;  Holy  Roman 
and  German,  Charlemagne,  20; 
Otho  I.,  III.,  20:  Henry  III., 
17;  Henrv  IV.,  22,  23;  Henry 
V.,  25;  Frederick  I.,  II.,  26, 
28,  29;  Rudolph  I.,  29:  Louis, 
Bavarian,  38,  41 ;  Charles  1\\, 
42,  46;  Sizismund,  59-70; 
Charles  V.,  105-8-9-10,  123-5; 
Ferdinand  II.,  143-4;  Corona- 
tions in  Rome,  99-100;  Greek, 
73-6. 

Fnhiditcnment,  165-8,  esp.  Mon- 
tesquieu, Voltaire,  Rousseau, 
173-5. 

Febronius  and  Joseph  II.,  180-1. 
Francis  I.,  97,  109,  125. 

Gailicanism  and  affinities,  151; 
Jansenism.  151-3:  Bull  I'ni- 
genitus,  169;  Louis  XIV., 
148-60;  Innocent  XL,  15(5; 
James  II.,  158;  Bossuet,  157, 
161,  180,  203. 

Jesuits,  108,  115-20,  129-30,  140- 
64;  Fall  of  Society,  170-9, 
229. 

Marsilius  of  Padua,  39. 

Philip    II.,     125,     127-9,     133-7; 

Philip    the    Fair,    30,    31,    34, 

36. 
Poped,    Leo    I.,    15;    Gregory    I., 

IG    Hadrian    I.,    18;   Leo   III., 


18;  Silvester  II.,  20;  Leo  IX., 
21;  Urban  II.,  24;  Hadrian 
IV.,  26;  Alexander  III.,  26-7; 
Innocent  III.,  28;  Gregory  X., 
28;  Clement  V.,  34,  36,  37; 
Popes  in  France  and  French, 
34-6;  in  Avignon,  44-9;  Urban 
VI.,  49,  and  Roman  succession, 
56,  61;  Alexander  V.,  nS; 
John  XXIII. ,  5S  seq.;  Martin 
V.,  63-9;  Renaissance  Popes, 
72-S;  Calixtus  III.,  81;  Six:  us 
IV.,  84-6;  Alexander  VI.,  87- 
94;  Julius  II.,  <s4-5,  94-6-8, 
100-1;  Leo  X.,  97,  103  seq.; 
Adrian  VI.,  107;  Clement 
VII.,  109,  114;  of  Catholic 
Revival,  130-2;  Paul  III., 
114-30:  Paul  IV.,  130;  St. 
Pius  V.,  131,  162;  Gregory 
XIII.,  131;  Sixtus  V.,  132; 
Urban  VIII.,  142:  Innocent 
X.,  146;  XL,  156;  XII.,  159; 
of  eighteenth  century,  163-1; 
Pius  VI.,  195;  VII.,  196-210; 
Leo  XII.,  218,  220;  Gregory 
XVI.,  224;  Pius  IX.,  228-52; 
Leo  XIII.,  252:  Popes  and 
Islam,  16,  20,  24,  77,  161; 
Papal  Families,  Borgias,  81; 
Roverc,  83;  Medici,  85;  Far- 
nese,  114,  135. 

Reformation,  Wyeliffe,  41,  62; 
Luther.  98,  103  seq.,  125; 
Henrv  VIII. .  113-4,  122;  Cal- 
vin, 121-3-6-7.  140,  158. 

Renaissance,  72-.").  79-81,  88, 
97;  and  St.  Peter's,  99,   101. 

Restoration,  French,  219. 

Revival,  Catholic,  114;  in  Rome,' 
139-41;  Bohemia.  138;  Austria, 
142:   America,   164. 

Revolution,  French,  186  seq.; 
.  .  188;  civil  constitution, 
189-93;  persecutions,  194; 
Bona, parte  in  Italv,  195-6; 
Concordat,  198-206:  Romo 
annexed,  207;  Pius  VII., 
captive  and  restored,  207-10. 


256 


INDEX 


Richelieu,  143-6. 
Rienzi,  44,  4G. 

Rome,  sack  of,  111,  113;  Fall  of, 
248-50. 

Savonarola,  90-2. 

War,  Thirty  Years',  137-47; 
Tilly,  143;  Wallenstein,  144; 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  144-5; 
Treat  v  of  Westphalia,  140-7. 

Wat.-rloo  to  1870,  211-52;  Metter- 
nich,  211,  215-6,  225;  Napoleon 
I.,  211,  213;  Consalvi,  214,217, 
21S;  Chateaubriand,  197,  214-6, 


218;  Lamcnnais,  220-5;  Greeorv 
XVI., 224-7;  Manzoni.226,  233; 
Mazzini,  220-8,  231,  248;  Ros- 
mini,  220,  229;  Gioberti,  220, 
232;  Rossi,  227,  230;  Pius  IX., 
228-52;  Napoleon  III.,  231- 
3-0-7,  241-2;  Antonelli,  231, 
236;  Garibaldi,  231-3,  241, 
248;  Victor  Emmanuel,  233, 
247;  Cavour,  233  seq.,  238-40; 
Dupanloup,  237,  243;  Castel 
Fidardo,  238;  Mentana,  242; 
Syllabus,  243;  Vatican  Council, 
244;  Fall  of  Rome,  248-50; 
Leo  XIII.,  252. 


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